A Place To Rest
by Yvette1
Summary: After being on the run for most of their lives, have 5 sisters finally found a place to call home? *Remake of the old 'A Place To Rest' I published a few years ago* This one is based on the 2014/2016 movies, with a few elements from the 2007 movie as well. I hope you enjoy!
1. Prologue

_Five years ago…_

It's cold. Freezing cold. And dark. And rainy. It feels like it's been raining forever, and is gonna keep raining forever. And all I can do is stand here…despite the fact that it's soaking my hair and clothes, and pooling in the muddy ground around my already worn out boots….

We've been standing here for what seems like forever. My four sisters and I, just standing here, in the middle of this old, rustic abandoned town, just staring in the direction we last saw our dad go. Even though we could probably catch pneumonia if we stand here any longer, especially my sickly sister who I hear coughing, all I can think is… _he's gone_.

Gone. Our hero. Our protector...our father. After lovingly raising us for the first 16 years of our life; he's gone. And though none of us wants to admit it, we know we'll never see him again. He hid us a week ago…though it seems much longer. He hid each of us, separately, and went to go 'handle' our attackers. Memories of the gunfire, explosions, and angry shouting we heard as we remained concealed in our hiding places floods my mind; sounds that will probably haunt me forever. And if that wasn't scary enough, to top it all off, before he left, he put me in charge. _Me_. Of all people. They barely listened to me when he was around, especially two of them. And now that he's gone? I'm not optimistic. But what choice do I have really?

I can barely see in all this rain, not to mention its super dark, but still, out of the corner of my eye I can see the bright aqua blue eyes of my normally bubbly sister standing next to me, as she stares at me expectantly, upper lip quivering, rain drenching her pigtails. True to her emotional nature she turns to me and hugs me tightly, sobbing. I know she just wants to be comforted…and oh how I wish I could comfort her. All I can manage to do is put one arm around her; but I still feel numb. It feels mechanical. It feels like I'm not even here, like this isn't even reality.

She sniffles. "What do we like, do now?"

The dreaded question. I can see the others start turning their heads to me, expectantly. The startling realization that this somber moment is indeed a reality, settles into the pit of my stomach and almost makes me feel nauseas. My heart races for a moment, thoughts racing frantically; I wasn't prepared for this…but here it is, the moment of truth. The moment when I have to take over…

I looked towards the hills to the east of us. It was time. I gently pushed my sister off, glanced at the others, and took a deep breath. I had no room for these tears. I had no room for doubt. It was time to act.

I took a deep breath and pulled the hood of my scratchy, and now soaking wet, brown cloak over my head. "Hoods up." It didn't even sound like me, but more like some kind of robot. They slowly complied and followed me as I started walking, all of our feet in our tattered old boots, trudging through the muddy ground. We were weak now, but we'll get stronger. In time. In time.


	2. Junkyard

Raph let out yet another frustrated sigh as he stood in the middle of the junkyard; the same junkyard he'd been standing in for the past 5 painstaking hours. He glanced over at his brother once more, before looking back around, and noticing a disheveled cooling unit large and stable enough to support his weight. He carefully sat down, hearing the metal buckle slightly under his weight.

"Don!" Raph's plaintive tone echoed throughout the junkyard. "How much longer man? We been out here forever!"

Donatello, thoroughly engrossed in his examination of a mangled microwave, barely paid any attention to his impatient brother. He just shook his head briefly in response, muttering to himself as he observed the structure of the microwave.

Raph looked up at the sky. The sun was just beginning to set behind the trees of the upstate NY forest. They'd come up earlier that day so Donny could gather more supplies for his laboratory experiments back home. It was supposed to be a short trip, but then again, he should've known better. Once his geeky brother saw all the 'equipment' also known as junk, just dumped, free for the taking, he was no doubt not going to be leaving anytime soon. "Don!"

Donny narrowed his eyes in frustration at Raph's grating voice, laced with irritation. He finally let out an exasperated sigh and turned in Raph's direction. "I'm _busy_ Raph!" He called out, before turning right back to the task at hand.

Raph glared in his brother's direction for a moment. Finally realizing he was on Donny's time, he let out a frustrated sigh as he pulled out his old PSP, also a junkyard find he mused, and entertained himself with that.

A few hours later, just when night had set in, Donny and Raph carried two larger duffel bags as they headed back through the path they took, near the forest, out of human sight.

"Think you got enough stuff?" Raph remarked sarcastically, adjusting his hold on one of the bags.

Donny ignored him as he checked things off his list.

"Took you long enough to get all this crap…"

"Why did you even come up here with me?" Donny quickly said, annoyed at his brother's demeanor. "You _know_ I take a while."

"Cos Leo was gettin' on my nerves….again. You were leaving, and I figured Sensei wouldn't be as mad that I left if I wasn't alone." He shrugged. "He seems to think I make bad decisions by myself."

"Fancy that." Muttered Donny sarcastically, looking back at his list.

Raph's look suggested that he took great offense to Donny's comment.

Donny didn't even pay attention to Raph's indignation as they continued on their path back to the truck.

Raph finally looked away from him. "Whatever. As long as we can stop and get pizza."

Donny grinned. "Now you're talking."

After parking the van back home, Raph and Don grabbed trenchcoats that served as their disguises, and took a quick run to a nearby pizza shop.

Several years had passed since the whole saving New York City from Krang incident; about five years to be exact. The guys were all 22 years of age now, a far cry from the teenagers they were at that time. The city had a way of remembering what they wanted to, and forgetting the rest. Unfortunately their sacrifice had become but a distant memory, to most anyway, so much so that living outside of the shadows wasn't exactly an option anymore. So on the trench coats went as they went into the pizza shop to order their favorite food.

Upon receiving their order, 3 X-Large deep dish to be exact, the two brothers began making their way back to the lair. Knowing he wouldn't get much of the pizza once Mikey got to it at home, Raph opened a box and began helping himself.

"Geez Raph, save some for the rest of us." Donny remarked, slightly irritated at Raph's hastiness.

Raph ignored him as he began stuffing the large slice of pepperoni into his mouth.

As they walked down the street, passing a portion of Central Park, Donny stopped and looked around briefly. "Hey, you hear that?"

Raph, mid-chomp, looked up. "Hear what?" He paused, listening for what Donny heard. He soon began hearing it too, the faint sound of trouble that their senses were trained to pick up on. Raph looked off towards Central Park, not too far from where they were standing as he finished up his slice of pizza. "What's goin' on over there?"


	3. Central Park

"Faster ladies, keep it moving!" Breathing heavily, a dark figure ran swiftly. She hastily ushered her sisters along as light from flashlights peering through the trees could be seen pursuing them through a pitch dark Central Park. Shouts of rage laced with profanity followed the flashlights, urging the sisters to keep up the pace.

"Hold….on." one said breathlessly as she glanced back. "Dropped my….inhaler." Her breathing was becoming labored and her chest began to burn for lack of oxygen. She began wheezing, causing her to start staggering and lagging behind the others.

The one leading them on firmly grabbed her wrist and impatiently pulled her sister along. "We'll get you a new one, we need to _go_! Keep moving!"

The five dark figures soon came to a screeching halt when they reached the edge of a frozen lake.

Breathing heavily, one of them looked back and noticed the flashlights and shouting were getting closer. She turned back to her sisters. "Now what?" she asked breathlessly.

The one leading them on looked ahead at the frozen lake, heart racing as her eyes frantically searched for a way out of their predicament. There was no way around it without doubling back and running the risk of being caught. Finally, something caught her attention. "Look!" She quickly pointed ahead. "We can hide in those trees over there!" without hesitation, she started walking onto the ice.

"Ba…bad idea. This ice…highly improbable….it'll hol…." Her breathing was too labored to continue her warning before the lead sister abruptly interrupted her, firmly tugging at her wrist as gunfire was heard.

"We have no choice, we have to go _now_!" the one leading them walked further onto the ice, with the four others reluctantly following her.

The ice crackled and crunched under their boots, but remained firm enough for them to continue on into the concealment of the grove of trees. They crouched down, completely silent, except for some labored breathing from the one who dropped her inhaler.

Indiscernible speech came from their pursuers as they came to the edge of the frozen lake, light from the flashlights almost exposing their hiding place. But before long, the voices and flashlights disappeared, and their pursuers were off.

One breathed a sigh of relief. "That was like, close."

"Uhh ladies…." One muttered. "I think the ice is breaking."

"Wha…." Before the sentence could even be finished, the ice completely broke and gave way underneath of them, and the five of them plunged into the deep, frigid water below.

Though terrified of having their pursuers return, they still flailed their arms, trying to grasp onto the trees or their roots for support; but to no avail. They desperately gasped for air as the sheer frigidness of the water threatened to take their breath, even before they sank into the bottomless depths. They desperately grabbed at the remaining solid ice, pulling at each other, trying to save each other from the subzero water that held them captive. But each solid chunk of ice failed and crumbled at their touch, causing them to panic and flail even more.

Just as they began disappearing into a cold, watery grave, slipping under whatever ice that was still intact, large shadowy hands began breaking through and shattering the ice.

The girls began reaching up, trying to grasp at whoever was there, desperate for help, hoping that whoever did rescue them wouldn't end up harming them…

The mystery hands grabbed them, and pulled them out with incredible strength, and with a speed that they didn't think possible, especially as most of them were fairly tall, and carrying backpacks.

Before long, they were all on dry land, on the grass on another side of the lake, lying on the ground coughing and gasping for air in the shadows of the trees around them. They shivered and shook uncontrollably, barely able to move their limbs as the cold winter night's air stung their already frozen bodies.

"I'm so like, cold." Shivered one as she and the others began to sit up. "My clothes, are soaked. Ohmygosh I think I'm dying. I'm totally dying."

"W, w, walk onto the frozen lake she says." One glared at her sister, as she sat there, leaning forward with her hands on the frozen grass, trying to steady herself.

Another one abruptly reached over after sitting up, and angrily smacked the one that led them onto the ice.

"Ow! Hey!" Indignant, she rubbed her head as she too shivered. "Th, they would've caught us if we didn't! We're alive at least ok?"

"For now!" another fired back. "It's winter and we just fell in a frozen lake, we're probably gonna die of freakin' hyp, hypo…" before she could finish her sentence, one of the others interrupted her.

"Um, like girls?" the other, who was standing up, turned towards her sisters. "Where's Rita?"

The others, suddenly warmed by the adrenaline of their worry, jumped up and began looking around.

"Rita?" the leader looked around frantically. "Rita!"

"She's unconscious."

The four shivering sisters stopped suddenly, wide-eyed as they heard the unfamiliar male voice.

"Ohmygosh who _is_ that?!" One exclaimed, huddling closer to her sisters.

Another stepped forward protectively in front of the others, eyes narrowed as she searched the darkness. "Who are you?" she nearly growled. "Show yourself!"

Suddenly, a light flashed on in front of them, rendering them temporarily blinded. As they shielded their eyes from the light, they backed up a bit, not knowing who was shining the light. They stopped once they backed up into something, or some _one_ , that hadn't been there before.

They quickly turned around, and stood, mouths agape as they came face to face with a large, bi-pedal Turtle wearing a red bandanna, who briefly shielded his face from the light.

Raph winced, trying to keep the bright light out of his eyes. "Don, turn that down will ya? The high beam is on."

The brightness of the light died down a bit, and Raph could now focus more easily on the sisters in front of him. His face almost became just as shocked as theirs when he saw them. "Holy crap…"

"Ohmygosh! He's, he's…"

The leader stepped forward a bit, cutting off her excitable sister. "Like us…"


	4. To The Sewers

Raph stared back in amazement as he faced the four sisters. They hadn't just rescued some wayward humans like he expected; they were mutants. Three of them appeared to be mutant Turtles, sans shells, and the fourth was some sort of feline/human hybrid with black cat ears on her head.

The sisters soon heard footsteps behind them getting closer, and quickly whipped around to face yet another bi-pedal Turtle, this one wearing a purple bandanna.

"There's like, another one!"

Donny looked back at them, eyes full of fascination. Then he looked down, causing the sisters to shift their focus as well.

It's then when they noticed Donny carrying their fifth sister, also a mutant Turtle, as she laid limp in his arms.

The one who led them gasped. "Rita!" she rushed over, and looked her over. She then looked up at Donny. "Is she going to be okay?"

Donny shook his head briefly as he looked down at her. "Not if she doesn't get some medical attention immediately. I got her to breathe, but it's very labored. Her lungs sound very weak."

One of them began crying. "But we like, can't go to a hospital."

Donny shook his head. "Don't need one." He quickly began walking off.

"Looks like you ladies are comin' with us." Announced Raph as he picked up the remaining two pizzas and began following Donny. "Come on."

With little choice but to follow them, the sisters quickly ran behind the guys.

Donny activated and spoke into his shell communicator. "Leo, it's Donny. Get ready, we've got guests…"

* * *

Being their guests were already cold and sopping wet, the guys avoided their favorite water slide entrance, and took the drier, slightly longer route into the lair.

The one who led them looked around. "The sewers…I never even thought for us to hide out down here."

"And with good reason." The feline hybrid said, holding her nose. "Smells _awful_."

"Just a few more steps, and it won't smell so bad." Donny remarked as they turned down a corridor.

Before long, Raph pulled a lever, and a large cement door opened.

Leo stood, looking towards the entrance opposite the elaborate water slide they often used, as he heard his brothers hurrying in.

"Donny? What's this about gu…." Leo stopped short as he saw Donny and Raph rush in, with the most unique guests in tow.

Mikey stopped mid-chew, mouth agape with a string of pizza cheese hanging out one side as he took in the sight of their guests. _"Duuuudeee!"_

Hearing the commotion, Master Splinter exited the dojo, only to almost get mowed down by Donny, who was rushing off to his lab holding the unconscious femme mutant.

"Raphael, what is going on?" Master Splinter, just a tad bit alarmed, asked.

Raph gestured towards the confused, sopping wet, shivering mutants standing in the living room. "They fell in that frozen lake in Central Park." He then nodded towards Donny's lab. "Their sister wasn't wakin up, so we brought 'em back here."

Master Splinter felt a pang of pity as he looked at them shivering. "You all must be freezing."

The feline hybrid nodded. "Ohhh you have no idea."

"You cannot stay in those wet clothes, I will bring you some robes right away." Master Splinter turned to Leo. "Leonardo, boil water. They need tea."

"Hai Sensei." Leo bowed slightly, then quickly went off to the kitchen.

"Michaelangelo, get towels."

"On it Sensei!" Mikey exclaimed, quickly stuffing the last of the pizza slice he was eating into his mouth, and running off.

One of the girls grinned as she continued shivering. "They're like, so nice."

Donny took the unconscious one into his lab and gently laid her on a table where he quickly used his vast array of equipment to thoroughly check her vitals. Machines whirred, lights blinked and several warning beeps sounded as he gave her a thorough check up, and worked fervently to stabilize her breathing and revive her. "Just hold on…"

Master Splinter soon emerged from the dojo carrying several traditional Japanese robes draped over his arms.

"Here, you all may change into these." He gestured towards the dojo. "You can change in there. There will be towels and tea awaiting you when you come out."

The girls all graciously thanked him as they took off their backpacks, took a robe, and went into the dojo to change.

The girls soon emerged from the dojo, and Master Splinter handed their wet clothes over to Leo to hang up.

As they sat down, Master Splinter extended his hand towards the tea. "Here, drink. It will help warm you. I'm sure you are freezing."

Mikey soon returned with towels, and handed them each one. "Here you are ladies."

"Thank you, so very much." Said the one who led them as she sat back down after grabbing a cup of tea. She sighed with relief as she delighted in the warmth of the porcelain teacup as the tea it contained warmed her frozen hands.

Donny soon emerged from the other room.

The girls immediately looked up at him with expectant eyes.

"I'm going to need some assistance from one of you." He then turned to Master Splinter. "Sensei, a robe please."

The one who led them set down her tea, and walked over to Donny. "Is everything ok? Is she awake?"

Donny took the robe from Master Splinter. "Thank you Sensei." He turned to the female Turtle eagerly awaiting his response. "She's not awake yet. But she's more stable." He handed her the robe. "I need you to, um, change her into this. The wet clothes are going to hinder her recovery."

She nodded and took the robe. "Of course."

"She's in there." Donny pointed to the door to his lab. "I'll wait out here."

Not too long afterwards, she emerged, holding her sister's wet clothes.

"Thank you." Donny nodded, and went back into the lab.

She nodded in response.

Master Splinter took the wet clothes from her. "Here, I will hang these to dry."

"Thank you." She handed over the clothes, then went to sit back down with her sisters.

The girls sat on the couch sipping the warm herbal tea Master Splinter so graciously provided.

"This is like, sooo freaky." Said one as she leaned towards another with black hair, who was sitting next to her. "They're like us, only bigger. And they have shells. And they're _guys_."

She nodded slightly in response, though she really wasn't paying much attention to her sister as she looked around at the bi-level sewer home curiously. Then with concerned eyes, she intently looked in the direction Donny had gone with her ailing sister.


	5. Introductions

Donny eventually emerged from the lab again.

Four eager faces quickly turned to, and stared back at him.

"I gave her a shot of antibiotics to fend off infection, and put her on a ventilator." Donny briefly removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes before sighing. "But the rest of the fluid will take time to work itself out. She may also have lung damage…I'm monitoring her symptoms closely. In the meantime, she's resting." He walked out into the living room as Master Splinter took a seat across from the girls.

"I can imagine you have many questions." Master Splinter then nodded towards his sons. "As do we. But first, I suggest we start off with names."

"Of course." Said the one who led them. She had dark brown hair, which she kept neatly tied back in a ponytail, save for a few strands that framed her face. "My name is Salina." She had brown eyes, was by far the tallest at about 5'9", and had the slimmest build of her sisters.

"And I'm like, Shelley." The one with light brown hair, which she kept loose, spoke up. She had just a hint of a valley-girl accent, had the thickest build, and at 5'7", was the shortest of her Turtle sisters. She had aquamarine-colored eyes, and a very large bust that the robe she was wearing even seemed to have difficulty concealing.

"Calla." Said the feline hybrid. She had yellow feline eyes, black feline ears, a little darker than her brown skin, long black hair that she kept tied up in a pretty neat, high ponytail, an average, slightly curvy build, and stood about 5'6".

They all looked towards the last, who had long black hair, which she kept tied up in a somewhat messy updo, with some hair falling to one side of her face that bore a fading pink streak. She had narrow, hazel eyes, a curvy, hourglass figure, and stood about 5'8", same height as her unconscious sister.

She looked at the guys somewhat nervously, then at Salina.

Salina sighed. "She can't speak. We don't know why, she wasn't always that way…..but her name's Corina."

Corina shot her a glare.

Salina rolled her eyes and sighed. "Ok ok…she hates being called that…Cori, call her Cori."

Cori just glared at Salina for a moment longer, before shaking her head and looking away, letting out a slight 'huff' noise of frustration as she lifted her cup back up to continue sipping her tea.

"And the one whose unconscious?" Donny asked curiously.

"Rita." Said Salina, her expression softening somewhat as she contemplated her sister's delicate condition. "She's always had problems with asthma..." She took a deep breath, trying to keep herself from becoming overly emotional, then looked expectantly towards Master Splinter.

"I am Splinter." Master Splinter turned towards the guys. "Please, introduce yourselves to our guests."

The guys did so, respectively, up until Mikey. The orange clad Turtle had to add his flirtatious flair by suggestively adding. "If you need anything ladies, and I mean _anything_ , I'm totally your guy." He grinned as he pointed to himself with both thumbs.

Leo looked over at him and just sighed, shaking his head.

Shelley giggled.

Donny leaned forward in his chair. "Your mutation is so, unique. I have so many questions, like, are you Turtles? If so, how is it you don't have shells? And if…."

Salina held up a hand, stopping him, offering a sheepish smile. "I'm so sorry, I really don't know how to explain us….we are Turtles, but hybrids…or something like that. Other than that, you'd have to wait for Rita to wake up. She's great at explaining stuff like that, that's her forte."

Donny looked slightly disappointed as he sighed. "I see..." He had so many questions, and glanced back towards his lab, hoping that his patient would awaken sooner than later.

"What were you all doing on that frozen lake?" Leo asked curiously. "It's very dangerous."

"No duh." Calla shot Salina a glare. "Genius here thought it'd be a great idea to hide there."

Salina became defensive. "Well _you_ didn't come up with any better ideas."

Leo looked confused. "Hide? From what? Or who?"

"Bad guys, totally bad guys. They had like, guns and stuff." Shelley shuddered. "All we like, knew is that they were humans, they saw us, they chased us and we had to run."

"Why would they chase you?" Master Splinter was more than a little curious by now.

"Because humans are evil." Calla remarked, a distinct hostility present in her voice as her eyes narrowed.

Salina glanced at her. "Calla…" She sighed. "We were hiding out in an abandoned building not far from there for the past couple of days. I guess even though the city abandoned it, those people, whoever they were, felt it belonged to them. They saw us, said we had no business on their turf, and chased us." Salina explained.

"Gang territory. Those dudes are messed up." Mikey shook his head.

"It's not easy running from place to place all the time. You hide where you can, _if_ you can…" Salina added with a heavy sigh. "…for however long you can."

Cori nodded in agreement.

Shelley suddenly shrieked, and quickly brought her feet up onto the couch as a centipede scurried by, and under the couch. "Ohmygosh there are _bugs_ here?!"

"Well, heh, you are in the sewer babe." Mikey replied with a chuckle.

"Hence the smell." Calla frowned, crinkling up her sensitive nose.

Shelley made a face. "Euwww, isn't that like, where all the toilet water goes?"

Cori smacked her on the back of the head and pointed towards the doorway they came in.

"Ow! Stop it!" Shelley looked indignant as she rubbed her head. "Okay yeah well I _know_ we're in the sewer. I didn't think like, bugs were down here too, just toilet water." She gingerly put her feet back down on the ground. "Great, we got chased, Rita's dying, and now we're in the toilet with bugs."

"If it's any consolation, we keep this place pretty clean." Leo reassured.

Cori made a displeased face as she kicked at a few pizza boxes and a beer can by her feet.

Raph, who'd been observing the whole situation from his corner towards the back of the room finally put his two cents in. "Hey princess, if it bothers ya so much there's always another option." He said as he pointed towards the door.

Cori narrowed her eyes as she glared at him.

"Raphael!" Master Splinter scolded.

Salina shook her head. "Shelley, Cori, Calla come on…" she turned towards Master Splinter apologetically. "I'm so sorry. We are _very_ grateful for your hospitality _and_ your help." She turned towards her sisters, a stern expression on her face. "Isn't that right ladies?"

Calla nodded, looking somewhat guilty. "Yes we are, thank you."

"We are…sorry." Shelley apologized, smiling sheepishly.

Cori nodded in agreement, finishing off her tea.

"I just really hate bugs…" Shelley muttered sheepishly, glancing around to see if any more would pop up.

Master Splinter smiled warmly. "Do not worry yourself. The sewers have been our home for a very long time, but it may take some time for you all to adjust." He stood up to begin gathering the teacups. "We will try our best to make you all as comfortable as possible, especially as we await your sister's recovery."

"Thank you." Salina smiled warmly. "We really do appreciate it."

Raph, chewing on a toothpick towards the back of the room, observed the scenery in silence, especially after Sensei's scolding. He watched how his brothers eagerly welcomed their new guests, and how hospitable Sensei was being. He never was the most social of his brothers, and approached any new situation with caution; even this one, even though they were also mutants. Though he had to admit, he was very curious about the girls' story, their origins, and if it had anything to do with their own troubled beginnings. While his family continued to offer comfort to their new guests, Raph quietly slipped out.

Leo looked towards the exit, sensing his brother leave. He shook his head, then went to join Master Splinter and Mikey as they continued making everyone comfortable.

* * *

Raph stood atop a roof in Midtown, arms folded as he leaned against a chimney, looking out at nothing in particular.

Soon, there was a voice behind him. "Ya know, we gotta stop meeting like this."

Raph smirked, and turned to face his friend, Casey Jones.

Casey lifted his white hockey mask, and fist-bumped Raph, before joining him, leaning against an adjacent storage shed. "So wassup bro? Another fight with Leo?"

Raph shook his head, offering a slightly amused expression. "Nah…not yet anyway." He adjusted his stance. "Get this, we got house guests."

Casey, confused, turned to him. "Wait what?"

"Me and Donny were comin' back from getting' pizza, heard a bunch of noise by that frozen lake in Central Park, ended up rescuing 4 mutants and a cat….chick, from drowning. One of them wasn't wakin' up so we brought 'em back to our place." He shook his head. "Ain't never thought I'd see this man..."

Casey looked up towards the sky briefly, trying to take it all in. "Wow that's just….wow." He looked at Raph. "So wait, there's _5_ of them?"

Raph nodded. "4 Turtles…I think they're Turtles, I dunno. And a cat chick. And get this, they're _all_ chicks."

Casey's eyes widened a bit as he stood up straight. "Whoa dude….well, where'd they come from? How'd they get mutated?"

Raph moved the toothpick to the other side of his mouth as he looked back out at the city. "Dunno. They said the other one's gotta wake up and explain it all."

Casey looked away. "Geez…guess I shouldn't be too surprised with everything we been through, but still..." He rubbed his head briefly. "I guess me and April should pay a visit and meet 'em huh?"

"Ehh, not yet. I think they're gonna need some space. I think they're a little weirded out right now, maybe even more than the rest of us. I figure we give 'em a few days of space, let their sister get better, go from there."

"All right man, we'll play by your rules. But wow…" He shook his head in disbelief then turned to Raph. "And how are you takin it?"

Raph shrugged. "Honestly, I dunno what to make of it. All the time you think, we're alone, for the most part anyway, just me and my brothers, as mutants. And then you see something like this and it's…I mean they're mutant _chicks_ ….I dunno. I'll figure it out as it comes."

Casey nodded in agreement.

* * *

By the time Raph got in that evening, he saw the girls asleep on the couch, and the couple of other chairs that were around. He didn't see his brothers, so he figured they must've been asleep too, or at least in their rooms. He faintly heard Mikey's video games coming from his room, then he heard some noise come from Donny's lab and went to check it out.

In there he found Donny arranging a couple of blankets on the still unconscious female Turtle.

"Hey."

Raph's voice surprised Donny, and he looked up briefly. "Hey." He then used a stethoscope to check her breathing.

"So what's her deal?" Raph asked as he nodded towards the female with black hair laying on the table, which Donny had fashioned into a comfortable bed for her.

"Asthma for sure, the beginnings of pneumonia, a slight fever, weak lungs…. She's sick, but I think she'll be ok….hopefully." Donny chuckled to himself. "CPR; closest I ever got to kissing a girl."

Raph chuckled a bit to himself, then patted Donny on the shell. "I'm turnin' in bro, night."

"Night Raph."

* * *

A/N: Drawings of the girls can be found on my deviantArt page. Link is in my bio. In terms of Cori, the drawings haven't been updated to reflect that she has a pink streak in her hair. Hopefully I'll be able to get that done soon. Hope you're enjoying!


	6. Breakfast

The next morning, the girls were all dry, and sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast. It was apparent they didn't eat much because they were practically devouring the stale cereal that they were provided with.

Mikey looked a little amused as he watched them eat. "Hungry much? You guys look like me when I get a five cheese pizza with the works."

Salina looked a little embarrassed, quickly stopping the milk that threatened to fall from her mouth. "Sorry…we don't always get to have breakfast…"

"No need to apologize." Leo brought another box of cereal to the table. "We're just glad to help. I just wish the cereal was, uh, newer."

Salina shook her head. "Oh don't worry about that, it' fine. After eating stale bagels practically all last week, this is a gourmet meal."

Shelley made a confused face as she looked over a pop tart. "Umm…aren't these like, supposed to have frosting? That's what it has on the picture on the box."

Donny, trying to hide his embarrassment, quickly grabbed the box of pop tarts. "Yea uh, you don't wanna eat that." He gingerly took the pop tart Shelley was holding, as well as the rest of the pop tarts, along with a cup of coffee, to his lab.

Cori raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Seriously Donny, still?" Leo shook his head. "Ridiculous…"

"Sorry!" Donny called back.

Shelley glanced back towards where Donny went. "Did I like, miss something?"

Mikey sat down next to Shelley and leaned towards her a bit. "Donny licks the icing off the pop tarts and puts 'em back in the box."

"Oh euw!" Shelley cringed. "Guys are gross."

Cori made a disgusted face.

"I know. So weird right?" Mikey said as he poured grape juice over his cereal.

Shelley looked at Mikey strangely as he poured the juice.

* * *

After breakfast, the girls started receiving their dry clothes back.

Shelley tried for the umpteenth time to tie her robe so it would completely cover her large chest, but failed yet again….a fact that didn't escape Mikey's notice. Shelley ended up standing behind Cori by the dojo where Master Splinter was gathering the clothes. Being the shortest, she got on her tippy toes to peek over Cori's shoulder a bit. "Are my clothes like, dry yet?"

Mikey, who was standing near where Master Splinter was gathering the clothing, noticed Shelley's yellow sweater, and looked down at the can of soda he was holding. "I dunno, it might need some more time…" he started moving the can to pour it on her shirt, when he did a double take, noticing his Sensei's disapproving glare, and his tail moving ever so slightly, ready to 'discipline' if he dared make a wrong move. Mikey sheepishly recoiled. "Whoops, I was wrong, looks like you're good." He recanted with a nervous laugh.

Leo pointed at him, giving him a warning stare. "Behave." He mouthed.

* * *

After the girls got their clothes back and changed, Salina went into the lab to check on Rita. She found Donny giving her another shot of antibiotics.

She looked at her still unconscious sister lying on the table. "How is she?" She was almost afraid to ask. This was the first time her sickly sister had ever fallen unconscious, and she was at such a loss; she felt so helpless.

Donny sighed, tossing out the needle he used in a red Sharps container. "Well, her breathing isn't as labored, and I see no signs of infection, so that's good."

She looked from up from her sister, turning to Donny. "So why hasn't she woken up yet?"

Donny briefly lifted the glasses from his face to rub his eyes a bit. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. My guess? She's exhausted." He looked at Salina. "You said you guys are constantly on the move. Someone in her condition can't take that much activity all the time. Her lungs are weak, and her body just probably shut down to get the rest it needs."

Salina looked at Rita, briefly getting lost in thought. "I guess that makes sense..." She looked back at him. "Thank you. You'll let me know if anything happens?"

Donny replied with a nod. "Yes ma'am."

Salina then left the lab, briefly looking over at the couch where Shelley and Cori sat as Mikey eagerly showed them all of his favorite shows. Being they rarely had access to TV, it was interesting enough, and provided the needed distraction from Rita's predicament. Plus being able to relax for a little while instead of moving around all the time was a welcome break. She looked around for a moment, trying to locate Calla. She finally noticed her, sitting on a ledge, observing the couch crowd from a distance. "Forever the loner…" she muttered.

Salina turned and went to sit in the kitchen. Pulling the long sleeves of her white sweater over her hands, she put her elbows up onto the table and placed her sleeve-covered palms on her head. She looked down with a heavy sigh as she sat there, getting lost in deep thought. She was increasingly worried about Rita, plus she was trying to get a handle on the whirlwind of events the night before. She felt so overwhelmed.

Leo, passing by the kitchen, noticed Salina sitting in the kitchen with her head down, and went in there to join her.

"You ok?"

Leo's voice somewhat startled Salina out of her thoughts, and she looked up at him.

"Sorry if I startled you."

Salina smiled lightly. "No its ok." She shifted in her seat, sitting up a bit. "I was just thinking…"

Sensing at least a portion of Salina's inner turmoil, Leo sat down across from her at the table and looked at her expectantly.

Salina looked back at him for a moment as he patiently waited for her to say something. He seemed nice enough, they all did, well, for the most part anyway. She was still trying to figure out Raph. Still, she wasn't keen on divulging her deepest thoughts to what was essentially, a stranger. Fellow mutant or not. She shook her head as she looked back down at the table. "It's nothing…just worried about Rita really." She looked towards the lab, thoughts beginning to race again. "This never would've happened if I hadn't led us onto that lake…"

"So you're their leader?"

Leo's question interrupted her thoughts, and she turned to him. "What?"

"You said 'led', so I assumed, if you led, and they followed, then you must be the leader."

Salina nodded slightly, looking away again. "You could say that…" She was secretly impressed that the blue clad Turtle picked up on that so quickly. Leading her sisters was no easy task, especially when she made mistakes, and this one was quite the mistake.

Leo could sense she was holding back, and rightfully so; she barely knew him. He sat back in his chair, propping one arm up on the back of it. "Being the leader must be tough…I would know. Sensei appointed me leader years ago…and that hasn't always gone over without a hitch."

Salina looked back at Leo.

He briefly gestured towards his brothers in the living room. "These guys don't exactly _want_ to be lead, so it's far from easy. Fortunately I do still have Sensei to guide me, and he does…sometimes."

"Lucky you." Salina said, somewhat bitterly, as she looked away.

Leo leaned forward slightly. "Hey."

Salina looked over at him again.

"One of the best pieces of advice that he ever gave me, was that taking the lead isn't supposed to be easy. And it also means making lots of mistakes."

"You got that right." Raph chimed in as he just happened to be passing by the kitchen.

Leo shook his head briefly. "Anyway, the point is, anyone could've made that mistake." He gestured towards the lab. "Fortunately you've got the best, and, probably _only_ mutant physician…taking care of her."

Salina chuckled a bit behind that.

"Your sister is gonna be just fine…and so will you."

Salina smiled slightly. "Thank you." At least for the moment, she felt a little more reassured.


	7. Settling In

Cori yawned and stretched; she had gotten bored of looking at the TV. She looked around, and finally noticed Calla, who had fallen asleep on the ledge she was on, snoring lightly as her head was tilted to the side in an awkward position that Cori was convinced would leave her with a mean neck ache later.

Shelley eagerly watched some nonsense that she and Mikey were apparently very into, making small talk as Mikey explained certain things about it to her.

Cori looked at them for a moment, bewildered as to how they could possibly find what they were watching to be _that_ entertaining. She eventually reached over the side of the couch, and grabbed her still damp backpack. She reached into the smaller front pocket of the backpack and took out an mp3 player and headphones. She looked them over briefly, no doubt they got wet last night, but she was hoping it still worked.

She put in one earphone and attempted to turn on the mp3 player; but no such luck. She tilted it and water merely trickled out of one side of it, but it wouldn't turn on. She let out an audible frustrated sigh.

Shelley heard her and looked over. "What's wrong?"

Hearing Shelley, Mikey looked over as well.

Cori glanced at her, then back at the mp3 player as she forcefully tossed it down to her backpack, an irritated look on her face.

"Got drowned out huh?" Mikey asked.

Cori reluctantly nodded, folding her arms, sitting back and staring straight ahead.

"Maybe when Rita wakes up she can like, fix it for you." Shelley, as always, tried to sound positive.

Cori glanced at her then just shrugged. Shelley's positivity was annoying to her at times, but she knew it was just part of her nature, and not going to change anytime soon, if ever. She often wondered, after all they'd been through in life, how Shelley could continue to have such a positive outlook. Her own was far from positive these days…

Mikey and Shelley eventually turned back to the TV.

No longer content to just sit there, and now frustrated she couldn't even listen to her music, Cori decided to take it upon herself to get up and take a tour of the place.

She eventually ended up at the gym. Looking around, she saw nor heard anyone nearby, so she went inside.

Cori slowly walked around, observing the equipment, which consisted of mainly weight machines, an odd-looking treadmill, or at least that's what she assumed it was, as well as a punching bag. She stopped at the punching bag and looked it over a bit before balling up her fist and hitting it. She ducked briefly as it bounced back at her, then balled up her other fist, and hit it again. Then again. And again. And again, until she was successfully handling the punching bag with ease.

"Not bad."

The voice behind Cori startled her, and she jumped and spun around quickly, coming face to face with Raph. She didn't even pay attention to the punching bag, which swung back at her, hitting her in the head.

"Yeah, watch that." Raph remarked, a slight smirk on his face.

Cori looked back at the punching bag, punching it again in protest, then moved away, rubbing her head. She then looked back at Raph, wondering how long he'd been standing there, and gave him an irritated look.

Raph caught the expression in her hazel eyes. "Don't worry, I ain't gonna bother ya." He then walked away from her, and over to a bench.

Cori's eyes followed him for a moment, slightly annoyed he was there; despite the fact that this was _his_ home and he _lived_ here. Unlike her friendlier sisters, she wasn't as social, partially due to the fact that she couldn't communicate verbally. Part of the attraction of the gym was the fact that no one was in there initially.

She eventually realized he really wasn't paying her any mind as he went across the room, picked up a set of large dumbbells and began his reps; so she went back to punching the punching bag.

Raph eventually turned his attention to her as he did his reps. Her silence sort of intrigued him, especially as Salina mentioned that she wasn't always mute. He gave her a brief once over; as much as he tried not to be like his more hormone-driven brother Mikey, her curvy figure didn't escape his notice. He wondered if she ever did workout, especially being as she handled the punching bag so well.

Cori soon felt Raph's eyes on her, and looked over at him just as he looked away and finished his set. She went back to focusing on the punching bag.

Raph put down his weights, and looked over at her again.

Cori left the punching bag alone, and looked at Raph, slightly annoyed, noticing he was looking at her yet again.

He nodded towards her. "So you really can't talk huh?"

Cori looked at him warily, before turning away and shaking her head slightly.

He studied her expression for a moment. "How come?"

She looked irritated as she looked back at him, along with another emotion that Raph couldn't quite put his finger on. Cori's fingers soon began subconsciously tapping another nearby piece of equipment.

"Cori! Where are you? You gotta come like, see this!" Shelley's voice rang through the lair. "TV has gotten amaaaaazing!"

Cori was barely interested in what Shelley was talking about. Knowing her, it was probably nonsense. Still, it was her way out of the awkward situation. She glanced towards the living room where Shelley called out, then looked back at Raph for a moment, before turning and walking out of the gym.

"Hm." Raph chuckled briefly as he watched Cori leave, then picked up his weights and started doing more reps.

* * *

Despite finishing his coffee down to the last bitter drip at the bottom of his mug, Donny could barely keep his eyes open any longer, and reluctantly closed the tattered notebook on his desk. He stretched out with an almost plaintive yawn, careful not to be too loud so as to disturb his still unconscious patient; though he was looking forward to when she finally _did_ wake up.

After straightening up the clutter on his desk, as best as he could anyhow, he grabbed the complex-looking stethoscope he used to check on Rita's vitals. He sleepily shuffled his feet across the dusty cement floor, over to the unconscious femme Turtle, who's breathing had become irregular for the 8th time that day. He promptly grabbed some modified Albuterol he had and infused it into her ventilator. Shortly thereafter, he breathed a sigh of relief as her labored and choppy breathing settled into a much more normal rhythm.

Yawning once more, he set aside the medication and stethoscope, and adjusted her blankets to make sure she stayed warm. Being so deep underground, despite being surrounded by pipes, some of which held steam that could scald anyone to death, it was still rather chilly, especially as they were in the dead of winter.

He paused arranging her blanket as he heard her utter a soft sigh. He watched in eager anticipation to see if she would finally wake up; but nothing. He sighed, slightly disappointed, and ended up carefully observing his unique patient. He hadn't seen her eyes open, but from what he could deduce from their structure when closed, she had the roundest eyes of all her sisters. Sure they were all rather attractive, but whether it was the fact that she was his patient, or something else, he felt particularly captivated by her. Calla was the cat girl, Salina seemed to have more of a type-A personality, Cori was stand-offish, and Shelley was for lack of a better word; a ditz. Being they mentioned Rita was the one who could explain their mutation, he was more than a little curious as to what else she knew. He found her to be very pretty; peaceful. Her black hair was of a thicker texture than her sisters, and though it did frizz just a little as it dried, was still soft, from what he could tell when he'd had to touch it to elevate her head.

Feeling another yawn come on, Donny held a fist to his mouth in a failed attempt to suppress it. He finished arranging the blankets on Rita, and slowly turned away towards his cot on the other side of the room where he slept, just in case her breathing became irregular again.

He laid down, removing his glasses, and briefly rubbing his temples, before laying on his shell, and slowly closing his eyes as sleep took over.


	8. She's Awake

A couple of days later, it was around 5am, and very quiet, as everyone was still asleep for the most part.

In Donny's lab, Rita began coughing. Her coughing briefly became violent, her chest burning as her body tried to rid her lungs of the excess fluid in them. She soon took a huge gasp of air before opening her eyes. As her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the room, she suddenly sat up, almost falling off the table, but steadying herself quickly before she did. She looked around, confused and scared; she had no idea where she was, nor where her sisters were. She then noticed the ventilator she was on, and pulled it from her face before flinging it to the side.

Rita got up from the table, but her legs were apparently still rather weak, and not being able to support her weight, they buckled and she fell forwards, knocking down an empty glass beaker in the process. She managed to push herself up slightly by planting her palms on the dusty concrete floor, and looked up. She caught sight of the broken glass from the beaker, mere inches from her hand, and recoiled so as not to be cut. She was eventually able to push herself up, and using the table she had been on as a crutch, stood up. She took a good look around the room, which wasn't all that big. It had scribbled notes in notebooks littered across tables, a couple of computer monitors, a chalkboard with various formulas, and tables lined with various mechanical instruments, vials, and beakers. She looked around frantically. Terrified that she might be in the wrong hands, her heart raced and her breathing started getting labored again. She reached for her pocket where she usually kept her inhaler, and it was then she realized she was wearing a robe, not her own clothes. Dizziness set in; she felt as if her head was spinning. Suddenly, she heard a voice.

"You're awake."

Rita suddenly looked up to see Donny standing near the doorway. Her eyes widened in disbelief and it became even more difficult for her to breathe. She gripped the table even tighter, and briefly took her eyes off of Donny to scan the room for something to help her breathe as the lack of oxygen started making her light-headed.

"Hey, it's ok." Donny said reassuringly, holding his hands up briefly as he slowly approached her. "I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise."

Rita quickly turned back to him and finally spoke. "Who….who are you? Where am….I? Where are…..my sisters?" Her breathing was turning into wheezing.

"Hold on." Donny reached onto a shelf and handed her an inhaler. "Here, you need this to breathe."

Rita looked at it, then at Donny, reluctant to take it.

Donny pleaded with her. "Please, your lungs can't take any more damage."

Though still reluctant, Rita could sense a sincerity about him, plus it was getting increasingly difficult to breathe and she saw no other choice. She then finally approached him, took the inhaler, and used it. Her breathing almost instantly became more regulated. "Thank you." She breathed a sigh of relief as the tightening in her chest began to subside. She looked at Donny. "Who are you?"

"My name is Donatello, but you can call me Donny."

"Okay…Donny. I'm Rita."

"I know, your sisters told us."

"My sisters? They're here? What happened?" the soft-spoken Turtle's brown eyes widened slightly, wrought with worry.

"You don't remember?"

Taking her eyes off of Donny for a moment, Rita thought carefully. "The ice." She gasped as she looked back up at him. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine." Donny felt his foot hit something, and looked down before he stepped on the broken glass from the beaker Rita knocked down.

"Sorry, I accidentally knocked it down when I fell."

"It's no problem." He promptly swept it into a dustpan and threw it away, then turned his attention back to Rita, who had ventured closer. _She really is the prettiest one_. "How are you feeling?"

"Um, okay, I guess…just ya know, a little freaked out."

"Yea..." Donny chuckled a bit. "I think we're _all_ a little freaked out."

"I can imagine." She examined the knee-length robe she was wearing, rubbing the silky fabric between her fingers. "Um… where are my clothes?"

"They were wet, keeping you in soaking wet clothes would only hinder your recovery." Donny explained. "Don't worry, your sister, Salina, changed you." He held his hands up defensively. "I had nothing to do with that part."

Rita smiled lightly and nodded. "It's okay, I believe you." She looked around briefly. "What is this place anyway?"

"Well, this is my lab, of sorts. This isn't the whole place. Your sisters are sleeping in the living room out there." Donny gestured towards the door.

Rita looked lost, looking down as she held her head briefly. "How long have I been asleep?"

"About 3 days. Your sisters are really worried….we all were."

Rita turned to him. "All?"

"Yeah, my brothers…well most of them anyway. You'll meet them soon too."

It was all so overwhelming, Rita felt a dizzy spell come over her again, and almost collapsed, but Donny quickly caught her.

"Easy there." He helped her sit down on the bed again. "Maybe you shouldn't be standing up for too long just yet."

Rita nodded. "Guess not..."

"Gimme a sec." Donny went across the room, then came back with a small device that looked like a rather deluxe stethoscope, and turned it on. "This is just to check your lungs, just breathe normally." He placed the device against her chest briefly.

Rita looked at the device curiously as Donny used it to listen to her lungs.

"Well, they're a little better. But I still hear some fluid in there. You're gonna have to take it easy for a while longer."

"Where did you get that?" Rita asked, gesturing towards the device.

"What this?" Donny held up the device briefly. "I made it."

"Made it? Really?" She looked towards the chalkboard then at the table of random machinery. "So all that…" Then she turned back to Donny. "Is you?"

Donny nodded as he went to put the 'stethoscope' away. "Yep, all me. Resident genius a.k.a. nerd, at your service." He took a slight bow.

"Funny." Rita laughed lightly. "That's what my sisters call me...not to mention egghead, Einstein, Brainiac...yeah the list goes on."

"Well then my fellow nerd." Smiled Donny. "After everyone is up, maybe you could explain to us all about your unique mutation."

"Gladly." Rita smiled. "I have so many questions myself."


	9. Their Story

A few short hours later, Shelley was the first to stumble upon Rita having an early breakfast in the kitchen. After adjusting her eyes to the light, her aqua eyes lit up like Times Square and she yelled out.

"Rita's uuuuup!"

The yell even startled Rita, who hadn't even seen Shelley standing there. Rita braced herself as she saw her energetic sister running towards her. "Oh no…"

Donny peeked out of his lab in time to see Shelley collide with Rita, almost knocking her over, despite the fact that she was sitting.

"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh I'm so happy you're alliiiveee!" Shelley squeezed her.

Rita gasped for air. "Shelley!" she said in a strained voice.

Donny ran out of the lab to pry Shelley off of her ailing sister. "Shelley wait, she still has breathing difficulties." He said as he gingerly pried the excitable Turtle off of Rita.

Shelley suddenly let go. "Ohmygosh I'm sorry." She said, slightly embarrassed. "I'm just so happy you're okay."

Rita gave a small smile. "Thank you."

"Why must you yell, about _everything_?" Calla walked into the kitchen with a cross look on her face, and her ears flat against her head in frustration. She then looked at Rita. "Hey Rita…" Her ears suddenly stood straight as she did a double take. "Rita! You're up!"

Salina and Cori soon rushed into the kitchen to see their sister as well.

"Well now that the town crier has woke us up, might as well see what's up." Raph remarked as he and Mikey went into the kitchen. "Oh, look at that, she ain't dead."

Mikey smiled. "Cool, she's up!"

Salina and Cori gingerly hugged their sister.

"I was so worried. Oh I never would've forgiven myself if you'd….but you didn't, you're fine!" Salina turned to Donny and gave him a tight hug. "Thank you so much!"

Donny, somewhat startled by the gesture, gave her a light hug back. "Uh, you're welcome."

Salina pulled away quickly, wiping away a couple of tears that escaped. "I'm so sorry, it's just….I was really worried."

Donny adjusted his glasses. "Understandable."

"How do you feel?" Calla asked, taking a seat at the table.

"Well, better. Donny's done an excellent job caring for me." Rita smiled as she glanced at Donny. "I still feel weak, my chest hurts a little…but I could be worst."

"She still needs lots of rest, but she should make a full recovery." Donny added.

"Awesome!" Shelley looked at Rita's plate of food, then back up at everyone else. "I'm hungry."

Calla rolled her eyes. "You're _always_ hungry."

"Me too!" Mikey announced. He then picked up a spatula and put on a random chef's hat that just happened to be lying around the kitchen. "Cereal won't do for this happy occasion. Chef Mikey is on it!"

"Oooo can I help? I think I like, still remember how to make pancakes." Shelley smiled eagerly.

"Well then come on over here gorgeous." Mikey invited Shelley over to the stove. "You can even wear the chef's hat." He placed it on her head and Shelley giggled.

"Count me out…this place makes me nauseous…" Calla remarked as she made a face and made her way out of the kitchen.

Leo glanced at Calla, then gave Mikey and Shelley a concerned look. "I hope you ladies have strong stomachs."

Salina glanced at him. "Well Shelley's actually a pretty good cook so hopefully that helps…"

"Hopefully." Said Leo.

* * *

After a surprisingly good breakfast, everyone gathered and sat in the living room.

Rita took a look around at everyone. "Well I suppose you're all looking for that explanation on our mutation."

"Eager and waiting." Donny looked particularly interested as he eagerly sat up.

Rita sighed deeply. "It's a pretty long story, so bear with me." She looked pensive for a moment. "21 years ago, we were hatched, just like any other turtles…except apparently we lived in a lab. A lab in Brazil, where a scientist, Dr. Richard Rios, worked. A scientist who would later become our 'father'." She looked wistful. "He was a good man…unlike the people he worked with. He never really told us what they were doing, just that they were using kidnapped locals as test subjects. He refused to be part of it anymore, so he left. And they were _not_ happy." Rita shifted in her seat. "That's when they kidnapped his wife, Anabel. They used her for their experiments; they didn't know she was pregnant…" she gestured towards Calla. "With her."

Donny raised his hand briefly. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but, any idea what they were testing on her?"

Rita nodded. "They found a green ooze at a meteor crash site. Supposedly they got to it right before this company called TCRI did. Somehow they used that, and black panther DNA." She sighed deeply and shook her head. "In any case, she became like Calla; ears on her head, yellow feline eyes, claws, fangs. Daddy eventually broke her out, took some of the animals, like us, took some of that ooze to study, and set the place on fire. He moved us out, far. Not too long after, that's when he said Calla was born, with the same mutations as Mommy." Rita shook her head. "Mommy was always sick he said, and soon, a lot of us, the animals, became sick too…but he wasn't. So he took some of the ooze, mixed it with his own DNA, and injected us. There were six turtles, only us four survived."

Leo looked a bit confused. "Why would he do that?"

Rita shrugged a bit. "I don't understand everything there is to know about genetics, or how it relates to that ooze. But something about it's chemical properties allowed it to bond to his human DNA, and mutate us..."

"And then Mommy named us!" Shelley piped up with a grin.

Rita looked over at her, slightly irritated that she'd been cut off.

"Sorry but like, when you start talking all complicated, it gets boring." Shelley shrugged. "So I just jumped to the next part."

Salina shook her head.

Rita sighed, briefly looking at Shelley strangely. "Anyways." She turned back to her rather captivated audience. "Yes, she named us, and she took care of us, raised us along with Calla, as sisters."

"She never treated us any differently, she'd read to us, even in her sickness." Salina added. Then she sighed deeply. "But our peace didn't last. One night, somehow, someway, those horrible people found us."

"They burst in just as we were getting ready for bed…." Calla's eyes narrowed as the events of that night played out in her mind.

 _(Commotion erupted through the house as men with guns and flashlights began surrounding the house._

 _"Mommy! Daddy! Strangers! Lots of strangers!" an alarmed 5-year-old Shelley cried out as she looked out of the front window of the house._

 _Dr. Rios quickly scooped her up, while holding Cori's hand as they ran towards the back of the house. "Quickly! Run!" Once he reached the back of the house he quickly pushed the girls into their old SUV. He frantically looked around. "Where's your mother?"_

 _"She went back inside!" sobbed Calla._

 _"Stay here!" He turned and ran to go back in, just as he heard glass break and the windows in the living room shatter as the gunmen broke in. "Anabel!" He called out._

 _Anabel met him before he got all the way in the house. "Go! Take the girls and go! I'll stall them!"_

 _"NO! You're coming with us, I'm not leaving without you!"_

 _Tears ran down Anabel's face. "Mi amor, I'm dying anyway, you know that. It's only a matter of time. Let me save our children, por favor!" She gave him a quick kiss, then pushed him. "Now GO! Ahora mismo!" She turned around at hearing the men coming. Her claws extended and her ears laid back flat in anger as she hissed and charged after them._

 _"Daddy!"_

 _Hearing the girls cry out, Dr. Rios ran back to the SUV, got in, started it up, and sped off along the dusty road._

 _"Where's Mommy? She's not here, Daddy she's not here! You forgot her!" Cori cried._

 _Calla looked out the back window as they sped off, too shocked for words, watching her mom ferociously fight off the gunmen. She placed a hand on the glass. "Mommy…"_

 _As they turned the corner, gunfire could be heard, and deep down they knew that they'd never see their mother again…)_

Salina shook her head. "Daddy took us all over the place. We moved _constantly_. But every single time, they found us. I don't know how they did it, but they did. Sometimes it took months, other times a couple years, but they always found us." She paused briefly in thought. "Then, about five years ago, when we were all 16, it came to the point that they were right on our tail. Always. We could barely make a move without them knowing. Daddy was running out of places where we could all hide. So instead, he decided to hide us, one by one, in separate places, and told us to stay there for a week, no moving, no sound, nothing. A whole week. We were so scared…" Salina shook her head. "But we did it. A whole week. That first day we heard so much commotion, it was scary."

Cori was visibly uncomfortable, and shifted in her seat so that now her knees were pulled up to her chest, and her arms around her knees.

Raph looked at her for a moment, then back at Rita as she continued the story.

"When we came out of hiding, the town was like a ghost town. Nothing…not even Daddy was there. We had no choice but to just move on."

Salina gestured towards Cori. "That's when we noticed she couldn't talk."

"I examined her for injury; as much as she'd let me anyway. Nothing. But she just, couldn't talk." Added Rita.

"And she's been a pain about learning sign language." Salina looked at Cori. "Isn't that right?"

Cori glanced at her with an annoyed expression, then looked away from Salina.

Rita sighed. "So that's it. There you have it. Some sort of mysterious mutagen mixed with human DNA, that's what makes us, us."

"Duuudee." It was all a lot for Mikey to take in. "Mind, blown."

Donny sat up. "So the human DNA would explain the…mammalian characteristics."

Rita felt herself blush a little, glancing at her chest. "Um, yes."

"And your lack of shells." Donny added.

"We used to have shells, but over time they shrank to the point that by the time we were 10, we had none. My theory is that as we mutated during the 21 years of our life, our bodies absorbed our shells so instead of our vertebrae being external, it became internal, like that of a human being." Rita explained.

"Fascinating." Donny marveled. "Just the fact that even though we were practically worlds apart, we still managed to be mutated by the same ooze."

Rita tilted her head as she looked at him curiously. "Really?"

Donny nodded, sitting up a bit. "TCRI is basically the company that mutated us."

Further intrigued, Rita sat forward. "Explain."

Donny went on to explain their own troubled beginnings with their mutation as Rita paid rapt attention.


	10. Conflict

"Just to think, all of this from an unknown green goo found at a meteor crash site." Rita marveled.

Donny nodded. "It is fascinating."

Rita nodded in agreement. "That it is..." She sighed. "I wish I had more time and the facilities to further delve into our unique mutation, but our nomadic lifestyle doesn't allow for anything like that."

"Speaking of, how long until Rita is ready to leave?" Salina asked quite matter-of-factly.

Everyone turned to her.

Salina was almost startled by all the eyes suddenly on her, accompanied by varied expressions.

Leo looked confused. "Leave?"

"Yes, leave." Salina sighed. "You all are so nice, but we can't stay here. Not forever anyway. Those scientists _will_ find us again, they always do. And we couldn't put you in harm's way."

Leo looked at Salina. "But we can protect you."

"You have no idea what these people are capable of….I couldn't do that to you guys. Especially not after you've helped us so much." Salina looked towards Donny. "Please, when will she be ready?"

Rita stared at Salina for a moment, deciphering whether to say something or not, but eventually just looked down and sighed.

Donny looked over at her, then back at Salina, unsure of how to respond at first. "Uhhm, a couple of months, at best. I mean, she's asthmatic, still at high risk for pneumonia, and her lungs are still very weak. I have to make sure she's fully recovered. That could take a while. Plus she needs time to restore her strength, especially for the kind of travelling you all do."

"I sense that you _all_ need to restore your strength if you are to continue your journey." Master Splinter added. "I urge you, stay, rest a while. No harm will come to you here."

Salina looked at the guys, before reluctantly responding. "Ok, I guess….but only until we're strong enough to go."

Cori rolled her eyes, got up from her chair, letting out a frustrated sigh, and quickly walked off.

Rita looked to where Cori walked off, then to Donny. "I think I'd like to lay down again."

Donny got up and walked over to her. "Here, let me help you." He gently helped her get up, and guided her back into the lab.

Shelley looked as Rita feebly entered the lab, then leaned towards Calla, who was sitting next to her. "Just between you and me, no like, offense to Rita, but I hope it takes a llooonnng time for her to get better."

Calla nodded. "Yeah…"

In the lab, Donny helped her into the bed, which he'd been able to make more comfortable for her by lowering it, adding a mattress, and putting it in a more private corner.

"There, are you comfortable?"

"Yeah…" Rita muttered, slowly laying on her side.

Donny noticed the change in her demeanor. "Are you ok?"

Rita was quiet for a moment. She started to say something, but stopped. "It's fine….it's whatever Salina wants. Always is..." She looked up at Donny. "Can you hand me the blanket please?"

Donny reached for the blanket at the foot of her bed, and spread it over her.

"Thank you." Rita got settled into bed. She could tell Donny was still concerned as he looked at her. "I'm ok, really. I just need to sleep."

"Ok..." He placed her inhaler on a table by the bed. "In case you need it. If you need me, don't hesitate to give a holler."

Rita offered a weak smile. "Okay."

Donny then left the lab.

Master Splinter observed the scene in the living room thoughtfully, before walking by Salina. "Come."

Salina was somewhat surprised. But recognizing him as the patriarch of the house, she respectfully followed him into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, they both sat at the table, and Splinter sat silently in deep thought before speaking. "What is your plan my child?"

The question confused Salina. "My plan?"

Splinter turned to her. "Yes, your plan. Leonardo has informed me that you are their leader. Where will you lead them?"

Salina looked uneasy. "To the next state I guess…to safety. Wherever that may be. That's how we've kept safe all this time, keep moving."

"Keep _running_ …" Splinter corrected her as he stroked his beard in thought. "An interesting concept..." He turned to her. "…but can you run _forever_?"

Her thoughts raced, but being unable to formulate a worthy answer, she simply just looked back at him with a 'deer in headlights' expression.

"You are their leader, and though you will not have _all_ the answers, you must have _some_ answers." He sat up a little more. "How will you find food? Where will you rest? How will you defend yourselves? A leader has _many_ responsibilities, and the world is a _very_ dangerous place, as I'm sure you have experienced, and it is not getting any safer as time goes on. These are things you must think about, not just for today, but tomorrow as well." He got up from the table. "Think carefully my child."

Master Splinter's words resonated deep within her, and Salina looked down in deep thought, feeling more conflicted than ever. She sighed deeply and muttered to herself as she rested her head in her hands again. "Why me Daddy…"


	11. Sneaking Out

_They've been with us for close to three weeks now. Rita continues her slow, but steady recovery, Donny makes sure of that. To give them a little more privacy while they're here, I decided to clean up, and give them my room… not like anyone else was going to do it. Donny, though he's barely in his room, especially these days, has notes littered all over the place; notes that he doesn't want his 'organized mess' disturbed. Then Mikey, as flirtatious and chivalrous as he's been, doesn't want anyone to have even the remote chance of messing with his video games. As for Raph? Well, he's Raph…'nough said. We're all just trying to acclimate ourselves to our female guests…none of us ever thought we'd see this. Female mutant turtles. It's pretty amazing actually. Their story is tragic; I can't imagine losing Sensei at such a young age. I can't imagine where we'd be now, if we'd all even be alive. I wish they would consent to stay. It's only been a short amount of time, but I feel like we could really help them. Keep them safe. I think the others would stay, but their leader, Salina. She's nice, but distant. A tough one to figure out. Their team…well, they really have no team. Sensei can even tell; they're not united. Rita doesn't appear to agree with the decision to leave. After all, she gets sick often. Moving around so much can't be good for her. And then there's Calla and Cori, both distant, both aloof, a sense of hostility…but there's something more going on with Cori that she just won't let onto. Not even to her sisters. They need so much more than their sister's recovery before they go. They need…peace._

* * *

It was nearly 11pm as Calla laid back on the ledge she was accustomed to occupying over the past couple of weeks. She looked up at the ceiling, beyond bored, and slightly nauseas; again. She eventually rolled over, and looked out towards the living room, ears turning in different directions, trying to figure out what everyone was doing.

Mikey, Shelley, and Cori were watching TV…again; though judging by the way Cori's head dropped and picked up a few times, she was actually falling asleep. Master Splinter was walking into his room, she could hear Donny and Rita talking about whatever geniuses talk about in the lab, Salina was napping on a chair, and Leo was reading in the kitchen. Her eyes then shifted towards the entrance as Raph came in, and made his way to his room. She watched him for a moment before looking back at the entrance. She'd spent way too long down in these sewers…

Calla eventually stretched and got off the ledge, quietly grabbing her black hooded jacket, all the while keeping an eye on Salina to make sure she was still sleeping. Quiet as she was, no one paid her any mind, and she slipped out of the lair without notice.

Outside, Calla pushed over a manhole cover, and exited the sewers, careful to slide the manhole back into place. She took a look around the alleyway she was in, then looked up. Desiring to get a better view of the city, she located a fire escape, and used that, along with her keen agility, to climb up to the roof of the nearest building.

Up on the rooftop, Calla closed her eyes and took in the scent of fresh air…well, as fresh as she'd smelled in a while. The smog was still present, but the nauseating smell of sewage wasn't, so it was fresh to her. She took in the feeling of the breeze as it blew across her face and through her hair. The air was crisp, but cold. Still, it didn't bother her.

She soon approached the ledge of the building, and looked out at the glittering city before her. The city lights were beautiful, and she thought back to when they lived in Mexico; how she'd climbed to the very top of the trees to see the shining lights of Mexico City in the distance. She sighed deeply, reveling in nostalgia and sat down on the ledge. Everything was so different here…

First off, she was forced to spend her days in the foul-smelling sewers. Granted, the area of the sewers they occupied didn't smell all that bad in relation to the corridors they travelled going to and from the lair, but her sensitive nose picked up on scents that no one else could detect. Not to mention her ears heard everything from dripping water, to rodents scurrying, to Mikey's loud snoring. It was a sensory overload and at times it gave her a splitting headache along with the nausea. But it wasn't the first time their living situation was less than ideal, at least she had her sisters…but even that dynamic began to change. She felt even more out of place than normal. Except for Master Splinter, everyone else in the household was a mutated Turtle. They had something in common that she didn't. It took her back to when they were staying in an abandoned warehouse in Texas ten years ago…

 _Calla rubbed the dust off of the warehouse window and looked outside at the busy streets below. It was just about dusk, and she saw men with briefcases hurrying home to their families, women on cell phones probably telling their families they're on their way home, and various other people who either had nowhere to go, or were in no rush to get to where they had to go._

" _Calla. Come away from the window, it's getting late and we have to put the light on."_

" _In a minute daddy . . ."_

 _Dr. Rios walked over to Calla and put an arm around her as he peeked out the window with her. "What's so interesting down there kiddo?"_

" _People . . ."_

 _Dr. Rios sighed._

 _Calla, sensing her father's deep thought, looked over at him._

 _He looked back at her with a tired, but warm expression._

 _Calla looked back out the window. "We're very different from them, aren't we?"_

 _Dr. Rios solemnly nodded._

 _Calla sighed deeply._

 _Dr. Rios was afraid to ask the question, but he knew it would come up one day. Running from place to place made him aware that he might not always be there to address such sensitive issues with his daughters, so he had to do it when he had the chance. "Do you wish you were human?"_

 _Calla turned to him, a surprised, slightly worried look on her face. "Do you?"_

 _Dr. Rios shook his head. "I don't wish you to be anything that you aren't now. If you were 100% human I'd love you exactly the same as I love you now."_

 _Calla looked at him for a moment, carefully discerning that his words were true; and hoping they were. She looked back out of the window and thought for a good while. "No, actually I don't. They can go outside in the sun, they don't have to hide in abandoned buildings and run from scientists all the time . . . but they can't appreciate life properly either. They can't appreciate that it's not how you look on the outside, but who you are on the inside, that counts." She turned to her father. "Don't you agree?"_

 _Dr. Rios smiled a proud smile. "I agree 110%."_

" _I may be different from humans, even from Salina, and Rita, and Cori and Shelley . . . but I think I like being different."_

 _Dr. Rios nodded. "Different can definitely be good. Conformity is so over-rated anyway."_

 _Calla laughed._

 _Just then, they heard a scream followed by "Oh my gosh seriously? Shutup Shelley!"_

 _Salina walked over to Calla and Dr. Rios with a slightly annoyed look on her face. "Shelley found another spider. She wants you to kill it. I think you should do it before Cori kills her."_

 _Dr. Rios sighed with a chuckle. He turned back to Calla. "Wanna help me kill this thing?"_

" _K." smiled Calla._

The blaring sound of police sirens interrupted her reminiscing, and she watched as the police cars flew down the street and disappeared around the corner. Her ears twitched in different directions as she briefly heard a low rumble. Confused at first, she felt a distinct stomach twinge and realized the growl was from her stomach. Her near-chronic nausea had kept her from eating much, but now that she was actually breathing fresh air, it seems her stomach wanted to make up for lost time. But she knew the minute she went back to the lair for pizza or anything, her nausea would start right up again, and she wouldn't want to eat. No, she needed food out here. Plus she was getting rather tired of pizza anyway.

Peering over the ledge a little longer, she carefully observed the cars, and in which directions certain ones went. A thought crossed her mind, a thought that made her smirk. She then turned away from the ledge and climbed down off the rooftop.


	12. Greenwich Village

It was just about 1am as she leaned against the wall in an alleyway in Greenwich Village, carefully observing the many people passing by. Hood of her black jacket over her head, hands held loosely in her pockets. A brief smirk crossed her lips, revealing two sharp fangs; she'd picked her victim.

Seamlessly blending into a crowd of oblivious people heading towards a bar, she exited the alleyway and began heading towards her mark; a guy thoroughly involved in conversation with a young brunette he apparently was on a date with, as he casually leaned against the shiny white Maserati the woman so openly admired.

Without missing a beat, she passed by the man, swiftly, cautiously. _Got it_. She smirked once more as she kept walking, quietly slipping into another alleyway up the block. She unfolded her hands that bore carefully manicured, and sharpened, black claws on her fingertips, to reveal a brown leather wallet. A satisfied smile came over her face as she peered inside at the cash and quickly counted it. "Jackpot." She glanced back towards where the wallet's owner was, still chit chatting with his date, completely unaware of the hole she had sliced into his pocket where his wallet had been. "Thank you Mr. Maserati." She then tossed the wallet to the ground, stuffed the cash in her pocket, and walked off.

Unbeknownst to her, she hadn't gone completely unnoticed…

As she began her search for a suitable eating establishment to spend her spoils, one of her ears twitched as she heard oddly heavy footsteps nearby, right before a voice.

"Hey!"

Calla didn't think to pay the voice any mind. She'd swiped many a wallet over the years, she was too quick, too slick to ever be caught…or so she thought. Still, she picked up her pace; as did the steps behind her. She turned a corner to a more desolate street, and noticed the footsteps were getting closer, followed by the slight sound of something rolling; and she was beginning to get angry. Who _dared_ follow her? She stopped and turned around, slightly lifting her head to take a look at who was following her. She didn't think Mr. Maserati was anywhere near that attentive, or quick.

A man stood there, wearing a white hockey mask and carrying a hockey stick.

Calla titled her head slightly as she observed him, a bit confused.

"I think you have something that doesn't belong to you." He remarked, taking another step towards her.

"Do I?" Calla was almost amused. "And just what are _you_ gonna do about it?"

The man took another step forward. "I'm gonna have to take that."

Calla smirked as she took a step back, further into the shadows. "Yeah, good luck with that. First you gotta catch me."

The man nodded with a slight chuckle. "Challenge accepted."

Calla turned and began running.

The man took off after her, and it soon became apparent to Calla that he had on skates. He took a turn away from her, which confused her. She stopped and looked around, before shrugging. "Guess he gave up."

Just then, when she turned the corner, he popped up right in front of her, and knocked her off balance with his hockey stick, causing her to fall to the ground, catching herself with her hands before she made a full on face-plant on the concrete.

The man began to approach her, when she jumped up, inadvertently causing her hood to fly off and reveal her ears.

"Whoa!" The man, taken aback, lifted his mask to get a better look at her.

Calla hissed, and sat back on her legs.

The man took a step back, but it was too late. Calla was angry, and she leapt forward, claws out, hissing, ready to attack.

Just as she was about to reach him, she felt herself suddenly stopped, pulled back, and tossed backwards onto the concrete. She winced from the pain of the impact, wondering what happened, as the hockey mask guy was nowhere near her, nor did he seem remotely capable of such force.

Just as she sat up, she heard and felt the impact of a loud thud right in front of her, and caught in a large shadow, suddenly looked up.

"What do you think you were _doin_ '?!"

Calla stared up in surprise as Raph stood over her, voice low and angry as he glared at her. "Wh, what are you doing here?"

"Don't ask me what _I'm_ doin' out here, what are _you_ doin' out here?! You don't know _nothin'_ bout this city, _nothin'_ bout what's out here! And then I come out here to find you're about to _attack_ somebody, are you _frickin'_ crazy?!"

Calla was taken aback by his demeanor, but quickly recovered and got up. "I was bored ok?! I get nauseas down there!" she complained, gesturing towards the sewers below.

"You _know_ her?"

The sound of another voice alerted Calla, and her ears twitched a bit, and she watched as the hockey mask man came and stood next to Raph. "It's a human, watch out!"

Raph glanced over to the side. "Don't worry about him. I know him. He's cool. _You_ on the other hand…"

Her eyes briefly narrowed as she tilted her head slightly, in an attempt to comprehend what Raph just said. "Wait, you _know_ him? What do you mean you _know_ him?"

"I mean I know him, he's a friend. A friend you almost sliced into a million pieces! You don't just go walking around attacking people!"

"Or stealing their wallets." The man added.

Raph glanced at him, then at Calla. "Wh…you took a wallet?"

Calla glared at the man, then looked back at Raph. "I was hungry so…"

"So you stole someone's wallet?" Raph looked incredulous. "You've gotta be _kiddin'_ me! We have food back at the…." He briefly put his hand on his head, then stepped forward pointing a finger at Calla. "You, you have serious issues kid. _Serious_ issues. You don't steal! I know your father taught you _some_ kinda morals! I _know_ he taught you better!"

Calla was beginning to get angry. Who was _he_ to scold her? "The guy was loaded, had a Maserati and everything, he didn't need it, _I_ did!"

"It still doesn't give you the right to take someone's money."

Calla glared at the man as he joined Raph in scolding her, then turned to Raph. "Who _is_ that guy?"

The man spoke up. "Casey, Casey Jones."

"Yeah, that's my man Case." Raph added. "A good friend you almost killed."

"Oh come on, I wasn't gonna _kill_ him…" Calla muttered.

"So wait, is this one of your new uh, house guests?" Casey asked, gesturing towards Calla.

"Yeah…"

"You told him about us? You told a _human_ about us? Oh great, now the scientists will be here in no time, and Rita isn't even better yet, I can't beli…."

"Shut _UP_!" Raph yelled.

His voice startled Calla into silence.

"He's a _friend_. He's been our friend for _years_. Him and his girlfriend, April."

"So there's _two_ of them?" Calla was besides herself.

"Yeah, and they're good people. You don't see _us_ sittin' up in a lab do ya? Not all humans are bad."

Calla glared at Casey. "Besides my dad, I've never met one I liked."

"Nice to meet you too." Casey remarked sarcastically. He sighed. "Good lookin' out Raph. Think I almost pissed myself so I'm gonna head home…" He started to leave when Raph snatched him back.

"No, go get April, and come over." He looked at Calla. "It's time they meet you both. Cos this crap, ain't happenin. _Ever again_." Raph then caught sight of a bit of the money sticking out of Calla's pocket and quickly snatched it out.

"Hey!"

Raph glared back at her. "This don't belong to you no way's." He then handed it to Casey. "Ya mind returning this to it's rightful owner Case?"

Casey nodded as he took the money. "Gladly."

Raph turned to Calla. "Let's go."

Calla glared back at Raph. "I'm not going back yet."

Raph chuckled as he stepped closer to her. "Oh yeah you are…"


	13. Revelations

Salina paced the living room. "Where is she? Where did she go?" She put a hand on her head. "This is just like her, just like her to run o…" She stopped short as she heard steps near the entrance.

Raph walked in, with Calla thrown over his shoulder, furiously complaining. "Put me _down_!" she complained.

Raph complied by releasing his grip on her and letting her fall to the ground with a thud.

Shelley gasped.

Cori looked startled, and looked at Raph, anger beginning to form in her expression.

Raph caught her expression. "Relax princess, I didn't hurt her." He then turned towards the entrance. "You can come in now."

Salina looked puzzled. "Who's he talking to?"

She didn't have to wonder for long. Casey and April slowly walked in, Casey in front protecting April, just in case.

The girls gasped.

"Ohmygosh people!" Shelley almost ran when Mikey stopped her. "Chill babe." He smiled reassuringly, then gestured towards April and Casey. "These are _our_ peoples."

Salina stepped back, and looked at Leo and Master Splinter. "What…what's going on here?"

Master Splinter put a hand on Salina's shoulder. "Relax child, these are friends. They have been for quite some time. They have proven their loyalty to us on many occasions."

Cori retreated to a farther corner of the room, where Calla, after dusting herself off, joined her.

"Hi." April said cautiously.

Shelley waved slightly.

"Well, this is awkward." April muttered towards Casey.

* * *

After a while, the girls began getting accustomed to the two humans in their midst. Rita was the first of the sisters to actually engage in real conversation with them.

Calla remained distant, even when Cori ventured a little closer to listen in on the conversations.

Salina walked up to Calla.

Calla glanced at her, then rolled her eyes as she looked away. "Don't start…"

"Yeah cos you already know _exactly_ what I'm going to say." She shook her head at Calla. "How could you? How could you go out there, by yourself, not knowing a thing about this city…."

Calla jumped down off the ledge and right in front of Salina. "You act like I've never done this before! Like it's so brand new! Look around Salina, we're in a sewer, a _sewer_!"

The outburst caught the attention of the others in the room.

"It stinks down here, but _you_ can't smell it! It's super loud, every noise vibrates off of these concrete walls and pounds me in the head, but _you_ can't hear it! It's driving me crazy!"

"Then ask one of them to take you out there! There's no sense putting yourself in danger for no reason!"

Calla was indignant. "So now I have to ask for _permission_? Like I'm some kind of kid? Are you kidd…"

"Enough!"

Master Splinter's voice startled the two of them and they looked towards him as he began to approach them. "This is no way for family to behave. Both of you, stop it now, please."

Calla looked at him for a moment. She thought to have a smart remark, but she caught notice of Raph's stare across the room. Words he uttered earlier echoed in her mind. _Daddy did teach me better._ She couldn't disrespect the patriarch of the household. She just glared at Salina, then jumped back up to the ledge she was on.

Salina glanced up at her, then turned to Master Splinter. "I'm sorry…" she then turned and quickly walked off.

Cori looked at Calla for a moment, then towards where Salina went.

"I'm beginning to think we're the least of their problems." Casey said, glancing at Mikey.

Shelley sighed heavily, nervously twirling a bit of her hair around one finger.

The rest of the evening went on uneventful as everyone began getting more comfortable with April and Casey's presence.

Eventually they decided to head home.

April noticed that Calla was still on the ledge, looking very surly, yet distant. She knew of her temper, but it still didn't deter her from approaching Calla.

"Calla?"

Calla snapped out of her thoughts and looked to the side. She looked at April warily.

"Just wanted to let you know, we've got an extra room in our apartment. You know, if you ever wanna escape the smell."

Calla stared at her for a moment. "Yeah..." she muttered, just looking away to nowhere in particular again.

April just nodded, and waved slightly. "See you around."

Casey and Calla just stared at each other as Casey left.

"I like them." Grinned Shelley.

Cori looked towards them, then to Calla.

Calla felt something hit her, and looked down to see Cori standing there, with a couple of pebbles in her hand from who-knows-where. "What?"

Cori shrugged slightly, then pointed briefly at Calla.

"Don't worry about what happened…" she was cut short as Cori grabbed her leg and yanked her off the ledge.

"Ow!" Calla exclaimed as she hit the floor. "The abuse I get around here, I swear…"

Cori folded her arms, staring at her expectantly, a look of irritation on her face.

Calla looked back at her sister, rubbing her head from where it hit the floor a moment ago. "What do you want Cori? I ran into one of their friends, he bothered me…"

"And she almost attacked him." Raph chimed in, stepping up to them.

Calla and Cori both looked irritated at Raph's sudden intrusion.

"Ya mind, I was talking to my sister." Calla complained.

"Yeah, well, don't forget to mention the part where you picked some guys pocket." Raph remarked as he walked off.

Calla winced as she anticipated her sister's reaction.

Cori's eyes widened briefly as she turned to Calla.

Calla shook her head, looking away from Cori. "Don't start…just, don't." She then jumped up back onto the ledge. "How do you think we got all that food over the years? Food ain't free…"

Cori stared up at her for a moment, expression wavering between confusion, anger, and hurt.

Calla glanced at her, then rolled over onto the ledge as she felt the nausea setting in again. "Just go…"

Cori finally looked away, and slowly walked off.

Master Splinter, watching from a distance rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "Hmm…"

* * *

Later that night, or rather early morning, around 3am, Rita yawned as she sat across from Donny at his desk.

Donny looked over at her. "You've been up a while, maybe it's time you got some rest."

"It's ok, I'm fine." She yawned again as she continued writing in a notebook Donny gave her. "I'm almost done with this equation…"

Donny smiled a bit; he had come to admire her persistence, which often mirrored his own. "Are you sure?"

"Of course, I'm used to pulling all-nighters."

"I am too." He gently placed one hand over hers as she wrote.

Rita looked up at him.

"But _I'm_ not sick. And Dr. Donny says, it's time for you to get some sleep."

"Dr. Donny?" Rita laughed.

"Well yeah…" Donny smiled, somewhat shyly; the joke sort of just came out without him really thinking about it.

Rita smiled at him. "Well, if Dr. Donny says so, I guess I should listen then huh?"

Donny smiled; he guessed she liked the joke. Looking at her, he spoke more confidently. "Yes you should."

Rita sighed deeply, putting down her pen, and closing the notebook. "Well at least I got the main components down in writing." She glanced over at his notebook as she stood up, then pointed to spot on the page. "You forget 'Na' right there. Stabilizes the reaction."

Donny looked down at the page. "Good catch." He then looked towards Rita as she went to her bed. While her sisters slept up in Leo's room, Rita remained in the lab, not only for him to be able to keep an eye on her condition, but also because the emergency ventilator was there, and she needed to be near it, just in case. He watched her as she climbed into her bed and laid down.

Rita laid on her side, fondly looking at Donny for a moment as she snuggled into her bed. "Good night Donny." She said softly.

Donny smiled. "Good night Rita."

Rita smiled back, and soon closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Donny looked at her a moment longer and sighed, before closing his own notebook, and heading to bed.


	14. Insomnia

It was around 3am when Salina let out an exasperated sigh. For some reason she just couldn't fall back asleep. Perhaps it was the events that took place earlier; Calla running off leaving her worried; as usual. Then meeting April and Casey wasn't exactly stress free; they hadn't had the best experiences with humans in life. Or perhaps it was Shelley's intermittent snoring that kept her up. Regardless, she realized that she probably wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep anytime soon, so she sat up. Feeling her hair cascading down over her shoulders, she realized that the white ribbon that she used to tie her up had come off at some point.

Salina gingerly felt around for her ribbon, careful not to wake anyone on the crowded bed; but to no avail. It was too dark, the bed was too crowded, and she didn't want to turn on the light and risk waking the others; Cori was notoriously agitated when woken up. She finally accepted defeat, quietly got out of the bed and left the room.

The living room was quiet, peaceful; a far cry from the usual noise of the waking hours. Though her sisters often did present a good amount of noise at times, the guys were far more rambunctious. She didn't see anyone else up, and eventually ended up in the kitchen. She turned on the light, and proceeded to go to the sink and get a glass of water.

She stood there, leaning against the sink, absent-mindedly staring out into the dark living room, getting lost in thought, when she began to hear heavy footsteps. She looked more intently, wondering who could've been up at this hour.

"You're up early." Came the familiar voice.

"Leo." Salina smiled slightly. "Hey."

Leo entered the dim light of the kitchen as he put his katanna in the holsters on his shell. "You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Just had trouble sleeping." She shrugged. "It happens."

"Well it was an eventful day." Leo remarked.

Salina looked distant for a moment, bringing to mind the events earlier that day. "Yeah…" she soon looked back towards Leo. "What about you? How come you're up so early?"

"Patrols…we've been slacking."

Salina looked beyond puzzled. "Patrols?"

Leo nodded. "Just safety precautions. We keep an eye on our perimeter down here…" he gestured above his head. "And up there as well. We're ninjas, we've gotta protect this city."

"Ninjas?"

Leo smiled and looked her over for a moment. "Why don't you come up with me? I'll explain everything."

"Up? As in, outside?" Salina was visibly disturbed as she shifted slightly. She hadn't been out once since their lake incident, and she wasn't too keen on leaving what she deemed safety; not yet anyway.

Leo nodded. "Yep, a little fresh air is good. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you, promise."

Salina smiled a little. That's the second time the blue-clad Turtle was able to put her troubled mind at ease, at least somewhat. A feat that was very difficult, considering 99% of the time, everything was on her to make sure everyone was safe. Now, she could relinquish a portion of that responsibility, if even for a little while. "Ok…" She eventually nodded, before putting her cup in the sink, grabbing her jacket, and following Leo up top.

* * *

The early morning air was cold, yet refreshing, as Leo and Salina made their way through various corridors in the sewer, to a rooftop downtown.

"Soo, Splinter, or as you guys call him, Master Splinter, taught you all to be ninjas? That's amazing."

Leo nodded. "It is. It's helped us a lot. I don't think I ever realized it in the beginning, years ago when we wanted to just go and play but Master insisted we practice. But now I see, it was all for our protection. It gave us focus, and purpose."

Salina looked pensive. _Focus. Purpose._ Two of the things she felt she and her sisters were severely lacking.

Leo stared at her, observing her for a moment. "We can keep you all safe you know. The Foot I mentioned, they're just the beginning of the danger out there. I'm sure you've run into situations before too. Not to throw salt in a wound, but that ice, was only scratching the surface."

Salina sighed deeply. "I know, it's just that, those scientists…those people are horrible, and it's one thing if they find us, but now you guys' lives are on the line as well, and…"

"We can handle it."

Salina looked up at him.

"You're safe here." Leo leaned down slightly, looking her in the eyes. "Trust me."

She found Leo's voice very reassuring. Just the fact that he took the time to reassure her was nice. Something about the way he looked at her in that particular moment made her stomach flutter just a little; a strange feeling she tried to push past. She gave a small smile. "I do." She said quietly.

Leo offered his own small smile, and realizing he'd been staring into her deep brown eyes for a while, looked down briefly before speaking. "But um, you don't have to make any decisions right now. When you do though, I'll be here to help. We all will."

"Thank you." She caught herself staring back at Leo, and took a deep breath, looking around. "Sooo, this is where you guys do your patrols?"

"Well, one of the places." Leo took a step back and took a small walk around the area they were standing in. He stopped when he reached the edge of the rooftop and looked down. "The rooftops offer a unique, concealed vantage point."

Salina joined him by the ledge.

"We're ninjas, we operate in the shadows. Unseen. Unheard…but yet we see, and hear, _everything_."

Salina looked down at the city below. Being close to 3:30am, there really wasn't much to see, just a few random passerbys and cars every now and again.

"Come on."

Hearing Leo's voice, Salina looked up, and saw him climb on the ledge on the other side of the building. She looked alarmed. "What are you doing?!"

Leo turned towards her, still standing on the ledge, and gestured towards an adjacent building. "Continuing patrols." Seeing the beyond confused look on Salina's face, he smirked, and gestured for her to join him.

Salina shook her head and took a step back from him. "I'm not going up there!"

"Relax…" he held out his hand to her. "I got you. Promise."

Salina stared back at Leo for a moment, still filled with hesitation, but eventually approached him and took his hand.

Leo smiled. "Let's go."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus, got caught up working on other stories, and the sequel to this one as well. I should be keeping up with it now though. I hope you're enjoying reading as much as I enjoy writing this ;-)


	15. The Foot

A little over an hour later, Leo and Salina were passing through a section of Central Park.

"See? It wasn't that bad."

Salina smiled and shook her head. "I never thought in a million years I'd be learning to jump across rooftops." She turned to him. "You guys seriously do that on a regular basis?"

"Whenever we have…." Leo stopped short and began looking around.

Salina's smile faded as she noticed Leo's demeanor change suddenly. "What's wrong?" Her heart began to race as she saw Leo shift his stance. "What's wrong, what's happening?"

Leo looked around, and took a step closer to Salina. "Get behind me." He said quietly as he slowly reached for his katanna.

She didn't need to be told twice. Salina quickly got behind Leo, one hand placed gingerly on his shell as Leo swung his katanna in preparation.

Everything was quiet; too quiet.

CLANG!

Salina shrieked as the sword that clashed with Leo's came seemingly out of nowhere.

Before long, there were easily 15, maybe 20 ninjas in all black garb surrounding them.

"So remember that Foot I was telling you about?" Leo asked as he swung his katanna in preparation for battle.

Salina, breathing hard in panic, nodded as she crouched behind Leo.

"This is them."

A few Foot soldiers charged at him, while a few seemed to be staring quizzically at Salina, a couple of them pointing and muttering something to their fellow soldiers.

Skillfully using his katanna, Leo fought them off as best he could, all the while shielding Salina who had no clue of what to do.

While Leo fought off 4 Foot soldiers at once, two approached and began trying to grab Salina.

"No! Stop it!" She swung at them fiercely, punching one in the face, and kicking another that tried to grab her. When she lifted her foot to kick again, another grabbed her foot, causing her to fall and began dragging her. "Let go of me!"

Hearing Salina's plight, it was then Leo noticed she was no longer right behind him. He quickly delivered several kicks, and a hard elbow to the face of another soldier, knocking them unconscious, then ran over to help Salina.

After successfully freeing Salina from their grasp, he began fighting off more soldiers, all the while Salina stayed crouched behind him, terrified, yet impressed at how adept Leo was at fighting off multiple opponents.

"Havin' a party without us? No fair!"

Mikey's voice came seemingly out of nowhere, before the orange clad Turtle flipped into the scene, right behind a few Foot soldiers. He promptly pulled out his nunchuks and clobbered them over the head before they even realized what he was doing. "G'night kids!"

Raph showed up and practically bulldozed through another few soldiers, before pulling out his sai and attacking them as they stood back up.

The fight went on for another few minutes until Leo, Mikey and Raph successfully sent the conscious Foot soldiers maimed and carrying their unconscious brethren.

Salina, shaking slightly, finally stood up.

Leo turned around to face her. "Are you okay?"

"I have no idea." She looked beyond shocked. "That was the Foot?"

Leo nodded.

"Bunch'a jerks." Raph commented, putting away his sai.

"That was awesome!"

Everyone turned to see Calla as she jumped out of a nearby tree.

"Wha…didn't I tell ya not to follow us?!" Raph scolded.

Calla smirked as she walked up to them. "You expected me to listen?"

Raph shook his head. "Ridiculous…ya could've at least helped. Them claws gotta be useful for more than just pickin' pockets!"

"Wait…what?" Salina looked at Calla. "Since when?"

Calla glared at Raph. "Thanks a lot."

"Come on, let's get back home." Said Leo interrupting the impending argument. "There's no telling what the Foot were up to out here, maybe Donny has answers."

Calla glanced at Salina, then quickly walked ahead of her.

* * *

Back home, Shelley, looking rather worried, was almost right at the entrance. At seeing everyone come back she grinned. "Yayy you're back!"

"Donny, give me somethin'." Said Leo, approaching Donny's workstation. "What were the Foot up to?"

Donny tapped a few buttons and stared at his screens. "Not sure…" he muttered. "There's barely anything near where you were attacked."

"I doubt they were just goin' for a stroll through the park." Raph remarked as he plopped down on the couch.

"Ah crap…" Donny muttered.

Leo turned to him. "What?"

"A couple of my cameras are down. I lost the feed." He sighed heavily. "I've gotta get the replacements ready…that might take a while."

"In the meantime, we've gotta keep up with patrols. No more slacking." Leo ordered, glancing around at his brothers.

"I agree." Said Master Splinter as he came out to the living room. "Our adversaries are always busy. We must remain one step ahead."

"We're going to have to step up on training as well." Leo remarked as he put his katanna away.

"Training?" Shelley looked puzzled.

Mikey put an arm around her shoulder. "Allow me to explain…"

Salina glanced over at Mikey talking to Shelley, then turned and walked off.

Noticing Salina disappeared, Leo set off to find her, which didn't take long for him to do. A few minutes later, he finally found her at the far end of the lair, sitting on a mat with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring ahead blankly, completely lost in thought.

"Are you okay?"

Salina looked up to see Leo, his blue eyes filled with concern. She nodded slightly, trying to force a smile.

"I'm sorry…I should've never taken you out ther…"

Salina quickly interrupted him as she sat up more. "No, I'm glad you did." She looked distant for a moment. "It was a reality check."

Leo stared at her for a moment. "You, your sisters…you should stay."

Salina thought for a moment, then looked back at Leo. "We should learn."


	16. Interlude: Salina and Splinter

That evening, Master Splinter was settling down to meditate in his room, when he heard a slight knock on the door.

He looked up to see Salina standing, shyly leaning against the doorpost, in the doorway. He smiled warmly. "Come in."

Salina slowly walked in. "Sorry to bother you…"

Master Splinter waved it off. "It is no bother at all." He patted the pillow on the floor in front of him.

Salina sat down on it, cross-legged, much how Master Splinter was sitting.

"What is on your mind child?"

Salina sighed deeply and looked down at the floor as she gathered her thoughts. "I thought about what you said the other day, you know, about not running forever. But moreso, how will we defend ourselves..." she looked back up at him. "Leo told me how you taught them ninjitsu. They can not only defend themselves, which, after this morning I now see is rather beneficial….but it also gave them focus, and a purpose." She shook her head briefly. "We don't have either."

Master Splinter stroked his beard thoughtfully. "And what do your sisters have to say about this?"

Salina shrugged slightly. "I don't know. I haven't talked to them about it really. I don't think I'll get a problem from Cori or Calla. Shelley might protest a bit, and I'm not sure Rita is ready for much physical exertion." She sighed once more. "But I think this is one of those things that I'll have to actually have to put my foot down on. We need this."

A small smile crossed Master Splinter's face. "You will do well my child."

Salina smiled slightly. "Thank you Splinte…"

He held up his hand stop her. "Sensei." He said.

Salina nodded respectfully. "Thank you…Sensei."


	17. Lesson One

"Ninjitsu, is an art that will focus both mind and body. It will involve developing skills such as speed, stealth and precision." Master Splinter explained as he walked up and down the row of the girls a few days later. "There will be conditioning, exercise, and fine tuning your skill to your individual strengths and weaknesses."

Shelley raised her hand.

Master Splinter looked at her, raising an eyebrow, before sighing, trying to remain patient. _This one reminds me of Michelangelo_. "Yes?"

"Is it gonna hurt? Cos I have a like, low pain tolerance."

Calla turned to her. "Seriously double-D? Grow up!"

Cori echoed Calla's sentiments as she pushed Shelley.

Shelley pointed at Calla with an angry face. "You _know_ how much I hate that nickname." Then she turned to Cori and quickly shoved her. "And you need to stop that!"

Cori began balling up her fist, when she was startled out of her attack on Shelley.

"Enough!"

The girls stood straight, startled at Master Splinter's firm reprimand, accented by him firmly hitting his walking stick on the floor.

"Focus, is required." His eyes fixated on Shelley. "Whether pain is involved or not, is up to you."

Shelley gulped.

Master Splinter took a deep breath, restoring his composure. His new students were going to present quite the challenge.

The guys peeked in the door.

Leo sighed. "This is gonna take time."

Raph smirked. "This is gonna be interesting."

* * *

Later on that day, Salina went into the room she shared with her sisters and promptly plopped herself down on the bed, face down, letting out a muffled groan of frustration into the dilapidated blue comforter.

"Tired?"

Salina's head snapped back up as she heard the familiar voice, a few of the loose strands of hair that escaped her now messy ponytail, draping over her face, partially covering her eyes. Surprise in her eyes, she looked up to come face to face with Leo, who she hadn't even seen there, standing by the bookshelf in the room.

Leo gave a smirk and slight chuckle, a little amused at the expression on Salina's face. "Sorry, I thought you saw me when you came in."

Salina stared back at him for a moment, mouth slightly agape, when she shook her head, regaining her composure, and quickly sat up on the bed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"No it's ok." Leo reassured her. "You weren't expecting me."

"But it is after all, your room."

Leo nodded in agreement, giving a small smile. "This is true."

Salina sighed deeply, pushing back the strands from her face, but being her hair texture was so fine, they didn't cooperate, and they fell right back to where they were.

Leo noticed the distant expression on her face. "You ok?"

Salina looked off to the side at nothing in particular, thinking for a moment. "They're impossible."

Leo stepped forward, and took a seat next to her on the bed.

Salina turned to him, an expression of hopelessness threatening to take over. "Did you see it? It was a catastrophe."

Leo nodded a bit. "It was pretty bad."

Salina dropped her face into her hands. "Oh my gosh I _know_!"

Leo nudged her, laughing a little. "I'm joking. It could've been worst."

Salina took her face out of her hands and turned to Leo with a disbelieving look.

Leo shrugged. "Well it could've."

"Shelley started crying, Rita had _two_ asthma attacks…Donny did _not_ like that by the way. And Calla's claws got stuck in one of the dojo mats for 10 whole minutes!"

Leo noticeably attempted to suppress a laugh, but a snort escaped. "I'm sorry."

She pointed at him accusively. "Raphael did the _exact_ same thing! Except he didn't really try to hide his laugh, he just kinda burst out laughing until Master Splinter kicked him out..."

Leo chuckled and shook his head, looking down. "Okay, yeah it was pretty rough. But it'll get better."

Salina rested her chin in her hands, sighing deeply.

Leo looked over at her, nudging her slightly. "It will. I promise. Just give it time."

Salina, still resting her chin in her hands, looked over towards Leo.

"Nothing worthwhile comes easy."

Salina stared back at him for a moment. She'd never sat that close to him, and found herself captivated by just how blue his eyes were. Catching herself, she looked down, sitting up a little more. "So what were you looking for over there?" She gestured towards the bookshelf on the other side of the room.

Leo, who was beginning to get lost in thought as he looked at Salina, snapped out of it and looked at the bookshelf, sitting up a bit more. "A particular book that might actually help you." He stood up and went to the shelf. He turned and gestured for her to join him.

Salina got up and joined him by the bookshelf, eyeing the stocked shelf carefully, admiring the variation in titles. "Impressive collection."

Leo smiled as he ran one of his fingers along the bookends of the shelf, perusing the titles. "Thank you. Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes."

"Nice." Salina watched him search for the book for a moment, then began looking at the shelves herself. A particular book caught her eye and she reached up and gently pulled the dusty book off the shelf, dusting it off as she looked at the title.

"Got it." Leo pulled the book off the shelf, then looked over at Salina as she opened the book she had. He smiled a bit. "It's beautiful there."

Salina glanced up at him from the book on South America that she held. "You've been?"

Leo nodded. "Master sent me there to learn to be a better leader…that didn't work out exactly how it was supposed to…but it was still nice."

Salina looked at some of the pictures fondly, running her fingers across a couple of the pictures. "It was…we started out in Brazil. If it weren't for those scientists, it was my favorite place to be. That's where our family started..." She sighed deeply. Feeling her emotions begin to get the best of her, she closed the book, and looked over at the book Leo was holding. "What's that?"

Leo handed it to her.

Salina took it, and looked down at the title. "Japan and Ninjitsu".

"It might help you get a better understanding of ninjitsu."

"Thank you." She said quietly, opening the book and looking over it.

"And if you ever need help, or a few extra practice sessions…I'm here."

Salina looked up at him.

"We're the leaders right? We've gotta master the craft at least a little better than the rest."

Salina smiled and nodded slightly. "True….thanks."

Leo smiled back. "Anytime."


	18. The Garage

Cori sat on the couch in the dark living room, knees up to her chest, staring blankly at the TV. A bored sigh escaped as she attempted to decipher what she was actually watching, for the third time that day.

Raph was passing through the living room when he noticed the bored femme Turtle, idly staring at the nonsense on the snowy TV. He observed her for a moment. Even though he knew she couldn't talk, and was probably even more standoffish than Calla, he couldn't help but be curious about the femme Turtle with the funky pink streak in her hair.

"Hey."

Raph's voice caught Cori's attention, and she turned to him.

"You busy?" he asked sarcastically.

Cori caught the tone of sarcasm in his voice and made a face.

Raph smirked. "Didn't think so." He tilted his head slightly. "Come on."

Cori looked at him warily. Where exactly was this Turtle who'd barely spoken to her trying to take her? She sat there, staring at him for a moment.

Raph sighed. "Look, you can either sit there trying to figure out what show that is for the next few hours…" he said as he gestured towards the TV. "…or come with me." He shrugged. "Choice is yours."

Cori looked back towards the TV, made a displeased face, and sighed deeply as she stood up.

Raph smirked. "Good choice."

Raph grabbed his sai, then led Cori out of the lair and into the sewer corridors.

"Keep up." Raph said as they walked the corridors. "Ya don't wanna get lost in here."

As Cori noticed all the eerie, dripping, moldy pipes overhead, and heard the vermin scurrying around, she had to agree, and picked up her pace to follow Raph a little more closely. She was still puzzled as to where he could possibly be taking her. She didn't know him that well, but at the same time, she doubted he would cause her any harm. Besides, it was good to get out of the lair where she was bored out of her mind most of the time.

* * *

After walking a little while, they came to a small corridor that appeared to be a dead end with a small door opening in the far corner.

Raph went in, and Cori followed.

Inside Raph flipped a large switch on the wall and lights came on. "Welcome, to the garage."

Cori looked around, and her eyes widened in amazement. The room was large, with a couple of long wooden tables filled with all kinds of tools like screwdrivers, power drills, and electric saws. At the far end was the large truck that Donny designed for them.

"Not bad huh?" Raph looked around. "Donny helped me set this place up."

Cori walked down the five-step staircase that led into the 'garage' and looked around, marveling at the scene before her. She would've never guessed there was so much to the Turtles' underground home.

Raph watched her as she explored, walking around the room a bit. He glanced towards another part of the room, then turned back to Cori. "Over here."

Cori looked away from a power drill she was examining, and over to where Raph was headed.

On the other side of the room in a smaller section, Raph walked over to something covered in a large white sheet. He shoved over a couple of metal chairs as Cori walked over.

Cori gestured towards it and looked at Raph.

"This here? Is my baby." Raph smirked. He pulled off the white sheet to reveal a large motorcycle, obviously in need of work as several pieces were missing. "She needs some more work. I know it's not really what you chicks are into but…" he stopped as he noticed her eyes become fixated on the cycle as she slowly walked over and touched it.

Cori ran her hands along the cool metal handlebars, then looked at Raph and pointed at him.

Raph looked a little confused.

Cori pointed at the motorcycle, then at him, almost in disbelief and mouthed the word. "Yours?"

"Yeah of course it's mine. All mine. I found it in a junkyard, started fixin it up. Well Donny helps sometimes, but it's mainly me." He briefly looked towards the other side of the room. "I have another one, but it's not doin' so good these days. So this baby is my new project."

A small smile formed on Cori's lips as she walked around the motorcycle, admiring it.

Raph smirked a bit. "So you're a chick who digs cycles huh?"

Cori nodded.

"Well, if you're nice to me, _maybe_ I'll let you help me fix it up."

Cori quickly looked up at him, somewhat surprised.

"What do ya say? Do we have a deal?" He held out his fist towards her.

Cori smiled lightly and fist-bumped him.

"All right princess, we got a deal."

Cori frowned and shook her head.

"What?"

She folded her arms and mouthed 'princess'.

Raph chuckled. "Fine, I won't call you princess..."

Cori unfolded her arms and nodded in approval.

"…for now."

Cori put one hand on her hip and raised one eyebrow in disapproval.

Raph smirked as he turned around. "Let's get to work."

* * *

A/N:

Sorry for the long wait folks! I've been working on several other stories (and ya know, life), but I haven't abandoned this one. Though there will be action in this one, but the sequel will have much more. I've been working on both simultaneously. I hope you're still enjoying!


	19. Acquiesced

If she hadn't been dark-skinned, Calla felt as if she would look green; this was the worst her stomach had felt yet. It gurgled, it churned, she had a headache and was even getting dizzy. She was beginning to lose weight as she hadn't eaten much in days. To exacerbate the problem, there was freezing rain falling outside, and the resulting moisture led to humidity, and enhanced smells, down in the sewers. Enough was enough. They'd been there almost two months, with only brief trips to the surface for training. She rolled herself off the ledge, barely landing on her feet, and took a deep, albeit weak breath as she decided to finally swallow her pride.

* * *

In Raph's room, Cori was sitting cross-legged on Raph's bed, flipping through a motorcycle magazine that Raph had.

Raph was digging through a drawer, eventually pulling out a couple of cans of spray paint.

Cori just then lit up at seeing something in the magazine, and hit the bed a couple times to get Raph's attention.

Raph turned around, holding the cans of spray paint. "What?"

Cori held up the magazine, and eagerly pointed to a picture.

"Found something you like?" Raph walked over, and looked at the magazine. There was a picture of pretty much the same model that they were working on, with a couple of key components shown in the picture that they hadn't put on yet. He smiled a bit. "Good eye."

Cori then gestured towards some of the detailing on the cycle.

"Wicked paint job." He held up the cans of spray paint he found. "Like these?"

Cori took them and looked them over. She handed him back the can of black spray paint, but threw the turquoise one into the garbage across the room.

"Hey!" he looked at where the can fell, then back at Cori. "Ya know, a simple no woulda been enough."

Cori shrugged indifferently and got up from the bed, still holding the magazine, one of her fingers bookmarking the page she was looking at. She headed towards the door, then turned around and looked at Raph as he went back to the drawers and rummaged through them some more.

Raph turned around as he heard some banging by the door, and saw Cori standing there, impatiently standing with her hands on her hips, tapping the floor with her boot. "You rushin' me?"

She nodded assertively, giving him an irritated look.

Raph was beginning to pick up on her body language, and found her to be rather expressive for someone who didn't make a sound; verbal sounds that is. He couldn't help but laugh a bit; though she was still a little on the reserved side, she had opened up a little more and he started taking a liking to her somewhat abrasive personality. "Relax, I'm comin'." He finally got the rest of what he wanted, a couple of tools and a bottle of motor oil, and went to the door. "Happy now?"

Cori smiled a bit, and turned around as they both walked out of the room.

Just as they reached the living room, they came across Calla, clutching her stomach, standing near Raph's room.

Cori looked concerned.

Calla sighed, then looked at Raph. "I can't take it anymore."

Raph looked confused. "What are you talkin' about?"

"The smell, the sounds…everything." She sighed deeply, as if the next words were going to hurt. "Where do your friends live again?"

Raph and Cori both looked almost as equally surprised, and glanced at each other, before looking back at Calla.

* * *

Casey was flipping through channels on the television when April began passing through the living room from the kitchen. A light tapping noise caught her attention, and she stopped and looked around.

"You hear that?"

Casey, somewhat oblivious to even April's presence, looked up, a distant look on his face. "Wha..?"

April waved him off. "You don't hear anything."

The noise happened again.

She honed in on the noise coming from one of the living room windows, and pushed aside the curtain. "Oh my gosh…." Quickly opening the window, she found Calla and Raph on the fire escape.

"Wassup." Raph gestured towards Calla. "You've got a guest."

Calla looked at her somewhat warily, but realizing her other option was to start puking, she heaved a heavy sigh. "Is that offer for the…room still open?" she muttered reluctantly.

April looked beyond shocked. "Yeah…yeah of course, come in." She moved out of the way to let Calla in. She then noticed Raph wasn't following. "You're not coming?"

Raph shook his head. "Nah, I'm kinda…busy tonight."

April gave him a knowing smile. "Well you two have fun." She briefly looked back towards Calla. "We'll be fine."

Raph nodded. "Gimme a holla if she gets outta line." He then looked towards Calla. "Behave."

Calla rolled her eyes, and walked away from the cold air blowing in the window.

It was then when Casey felt the cold, and looked towards the window. He almost jumped 10 feet in the air when he noticed Calla standing there. "Holy….April, what's _she_ doing here?"

April closed the window. "Relax, she's going to be staying with us for a while. She's sick."

Casey looked at her carefully.

Calla sighed deeply. "Chill, I'm not gonna bother you. I just…I just needed air."

"Come on, follow me." April ushered her into another room. "I cleaned it up a bit, just in case you ever changed your mind."

Calla came to the doorway of the apartment's second bedroom. It was small, plain, but clean. A twin-sized bed with grey sheets, white walls, a dresser, a nightstand; nothing fancy. But it was a far cry from the ledge she occupied in the lair. She glanced at April. "Thank you..." She muttered, then looked down at herself, and got a small frown. "I still smell like the sewers."

"No worries." April walked in the room, and opened one of the dresser drawers. "I put some clothes in here that might fit you. And the shower is down the hall."

Calla was actually impressed she was so hospitable. "Thanks…."

April left the room. "I'll leave you to get comfortable."

Calla looked around the room, then finally at the clothes.

* * *

Not too long after, Calla emerged from the room, showered and in clean clothes. She joined Casey on the couch, while April brought her something light to eat.

"Just until your stomach feels better."

Calla nodded. "Thank you…" She ate a bit of the food, and sat back on the couch. She stared down at her hands for a moment; and at her claws, features that set her apart from humans, and her mutant sisters alike. "Thank you…for everything. And…I'm sorry too." She finally looked up. "We've had some pretty bad experiences with humans..."

"I can imagine." April said, sitting up on the couch.

Calla shook her head. "I don't think you can."

"Well you're right, we don't know exactly what it's like. But we can definitely imagine how tough it'd be, to deal with something like that." Casey remarked.

Calla nodded slightly, then looked at them quizzically. "I don't understand, why do you do it? What's in it for you? Why do you help them? Why do you keep their secret?"

April and Casey glanced at each other, then at Calla, and shrugged before answering rather matter-of-factly. "Because it's the right thing to do."

The words hit Calla harder than she expected them to. _The right thing to do_. Over the years, those lines had become blurred. But now, for the first time since their father died, her values began getting called into question. _The right thing to do_. If they could do it, with no personal benefit, then it was time she started making some changes of her own.


	20. Voices in the Night

Raph looked over a piece of machinery he was working on, and down at the tools he had. With a slight grunt, he got up from his seat at his workstation. "I'll be back..."

Cori looked up for a moment to see Raph go into another section of the garage, then she looked back down at her own project, picking up her power drill.

A few moments later, she looked back up, over at the radio, hearing a song she liked, come on. She smiled a bit to herself and began dancing in her seat. But she found she couldn't contain herself much longer as the beat dropped to J. Lo's "Get Right", and she got up and started dancing right at her workstation, power drill in hand and all. Swaying her hips and jumping around to the music, she didn't even notice that Raph had come back in the room, until the song ended.

"Not bad." Raph clapped.

Cori spun around quickly, hair whipping around her quickly, as she stared, wide-eyed at Raph.

Raph smirked as he walked back over to his workstation. "Nice moves."

Cori looked beyond embarrassed, as she quickly sat down, and looked down, trying to hide an embarrassed smile.

Raph just laughed. "Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me…for now."

Cori just shook her head, smiling briefly before shaking her head in disbelief that he actually saw her. She eventually went back to the task at hand, trying to forget her humiliating moment.

Raph went back to work as well, now with the tool he needed. He soon looked back towards Cori, who was thoroughly involved in her work again, and ended up staring at her for a moment.

Cori, feeling his stare, looked up towards Raph. She stared back at him, before sticking out her tongue at him for a moment, then going back to her work.

Raph chuckled, and eventually returned to his task as well.

* * *

In the shadows of the night, a Foot soldier joined a group of other Foot soldiers in a room, talking to a man with gray-streaked brown hair.

"Well?" asked the man nonchalantly.

"The targets you seek are here." The Foot soldier nodded. "But…"

The man folded his arms and cocked his head to the side slightly. "But?"

"They are usually in the company of the ones our Sensei has always sought."

"The ninjas you speak of." The man looked deep in thought, then looked back at the Foot soldier. "Always?"

The Foot soldier nodded.

The man sighed deeply and paced the room slightly, muttering to himself in deep thought. He then turned to the Foot soldiers again. "I may have a solution to that. Not yet…but soon." He stuffed his hands into his pockets, and pulled out a gold pocketwatch, and briefly looked at the cracked watch face. "I have a train to catch…but I will be in touch."

The Foot soldier nodded.

The man nodded in turn, and walked off into the shadows.

* * *

Late that night, well after training and dinner, Raph, on an armchair in the living room, began stirring. He finally yawned a bit, and stretched, opening his eyes. He looked around, it was dark, except for light flickering from the TV. He reasoned he must've fallen asleep watching TV.

Looking over, he noticed Leo must've done the same, as he was passed out, again in that awkward position with his leg up on the back of the couch, snoring off and on.

Raph sat up in the chair, elbows resting on his knees as he rubbed his face. He soon looked up, and noticed though the kitchen light was off, there was a little light coming from in there, most likely the fridge. He quietly got up and began heading towards the kitchen, hearing someone muttering something incoherent as he approached the kitchen. He was trying to see who else was up this late.

As his feet hit the linoleum in the kitchen, a head quickly snapped up from the fridge, and they turned around to face Raph.

Raph turned on the kitchen light to find Cori standing there, staring back at him. "That was you in the fridge?"

Cori looked at him a moment, and just nodded slowly.

Raph looked around the kitchen briefly as he walked further in. "No one else was in here?"

Cori looked slightly confused, and shook her head.

Raph also looked confused. "I thought I heard someone talking…"

Cori looked at him warily, before quickly turning back to the fridge, grabbing a cold slice of pizza, and closing the fridge door.

Raph stood there, looking at her suspiciously.

Cori caught his expression, and just blankly stared back at him for a moment, before taking a large bite of the cold pizza, and walking by him, lightly punching him on the shoulder as she briskly made her way out of the kitchen, and back to the room she shared with her sisters.

Raph turned and stared after her for a moment, before shaking his head, and just going to the fridge for a late night snack himself.


	21. Shower Time Pt1

Calla sat in the window of her room in April and Casey's apartment, lightly tapping on the glass with her claws. It was raining today; she wasn't too fond of the rain. Brief streaks of lightning flashed across the sky as rumbles of thunder were heard in the distance. She heard a light knock, and one of her ears turned towards the door, followed by her head.

April stood, peeking in the doorway. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah…" she muttered. "Wassup?"

April briefly held up her cell. "The guys called, said you missed practice today.

Calla shrugged. "Yeah I know…didn't really feel like it." She looked a bit distant. "I don't really like the rain…"

April nodded. "I gotcha. Well if you want, I bought some more tuna, and some bread, in case you're hungry."

Calla smiled slightly. "Thanks." She then turned back towards the window. She heard April walk off, and sighed.

Truth be told, the rain itself wasn't much of an issue for her. She wasn't so feline that the wetness was a problem…it was moreso the memories it conjured up…

It was raining heavily that first day out of hiding; the day they realized that their father wasn't coming back. She thought that after all these years she'd get over it, that somehow it wouldn't bother her as much; but it did. Her sisters didn't seem quite as affected; but she was.

Sighing deeply, Calla just leaned against the window, staring out into the cloudy, rainy sky.

* * *

"Ohmygosh euwww there's MUD on mee!" shrieked Shelley, as the whole crew, sopping wet and muddy from training, sloshed into the lair.

Cori looked highly displeased as she wrung out her dripping wet hair.

"So uh, is there a reason we couldn't skip practice today?" shivered Rita, as an ever-protective Donny threw a towel over her.

Master Splinter shook himself partially dry before speaking. "You must learn to master your skills in _every_ kind of condition; rain included."

"Just wait 'til it snows." Chuckled Mikey.

"Oh I can wait." Said Rita, continuing to shiver.

"Well fortunately April brought us all those new clothes last week, now we actually have something to change into after our showers instead of waiting on our stuff to wash and dry." Salina said as she took the ribbon out of her hair.

"Speaking of showers, I'm first!" exclaimed Shelley as she ran towards the stairs up to the bathroom.

Cori seemingly appeared out of nowhere, knocking Shelley out of the way, and rushing up the stairs before her.

"Heyyy! Like, no fair!" pouted Shelley, attempting to chase after Cori, who made a quick beeline into the bathroom.

* * *

By now the rules were understood; Master Splinter made it clear that _no one_ was allowed upstairs until the girls had finished showering and were dressed. He no longer gave the speech as he did when the ladies first arrived, deeming it unnecessary; or so he thought.

Mikey, Leo and Raph were sitting on the couch, when Leo, annoyed, finally looked over at Mikey who had been tapping his foot quickly for the past 15 minutes.

He raised an eyebrow as he looked at his brother. "What's wrong with you?"

"Whaddaya think is wrong? There's half naked Turtle chicks up _there_ and we're down _here_." Raph interjected.

Mikey and Leo looked at him for a moment almost in awe of his blatant admission, before Mikey spoke.

"Umm, ok, yeah I guess that too, but actually, I _really_ gotta pee."

Leo turned back to the TV. "You know the rules Mikey. You're going to have to hold it."

"I dunno if I can bro…"

"Just let 'im pee Leo."

"No, absolutely not…you remember what Sensei told us years ago, we're _never_ too old for the hashi."

Raph almost shuddered. "I ain't goin' back to the hashi..."

Leo turned to him. "Well if Mikey goes upstairs we're _all_ going to the hashi."

Mikey continued tapping his foot.

"I told you about all that soda…." Leo scolded. "Why don't you just go use the other bathroom in the corridors?"

"I'm not gonna make it that far dude…" Mikey remarked, still furiously tapping his foot.

Raph was getting beyond irritated. "Come on man he's gonna piss the couch if you don't let him go, just let him go."

"No!"

"Leo seriously man? I'm not cleanin' it up if he pisses the couch."

"We can't…"

"Let 'im go…"

"Fine!" Leo let out an exasperated sigh. He gave Mikey a stern, warning look. "I swear Mikey, just go, pee, and come _right_ back down." He emphasized his words by pointing his pointer finger down, before pointing it straight back at him.

"Got it bro." Mikey bolted up from the couch and raced upstairs.

When he got up there, he didn't even bother to knock on the bathroom door before entering, and once he did, he wished he had knocked.

Too shocked to even utter a sound, Shelley stood there, fresh out of the shower, not even having been able to wrap herself in a towel yet.

Mikey froze as he stood face to face with Shelley, who was wearing nothing but a shocked expression.

Shelley soon snapped out of her shock and grabbed her towel. Just as she was about to yell, Mikey quickly turned and bolted back down the stairs, plopping himself right back on the couch between Raph and Leo.

They looked surprised.

"Well that was fast." Leo remarked.

"Uhh, you ok bro?" Raph asked, noticing Mikey's shocked expression.

Mikey could barely shake his head. "Big boobs, _really_ big boobs….no shell…ohhh man."

Leo and Raph looked at him in disbelief.

"Dudes, I couldn't pee right now, even if I wanted to." He said, shifting somewhat uncomfortably in his seat.

Raph and Leo looked at each other, then towards Splinter's room, hoping he wouldn't notice anything out of place.

Leo turned to Mikey, and spoke in a somewhat hushed voice. "Go in the kitchen and splash cold water on yourself."

"Dude I don't think I can even stand up right now…"

Raph tossed him a couch pillow. Those annoying things that April brought them some time ago finally had a use. "Use that. Sensei can't notice _anything_."

Mikey gladly took the pillow.

Leo shook his head.


	22. Shower Time Pt2

After a while, Leo had gone to do some meditating in the dojo, and Mikey had since fallen asleep on the couch, trying to forget about what just took place in the bathroom.

Raph remembered he wanted something from his room, and he knew exactly where it was. He looked around carefully, and convinced he could get what he needed and come right back down unnoticed, he went upstairs.

He soon came to his room, and noticing the door was open, didn't even bother to knock, and walked in.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed Cori, only wrapped in a towel, standing by his mirror. She stared back at him with wide eyes.

They stared at each other for a moment before Raph spoke. "Don't worry, I ain't gonna bother ya. I just came to uh, get something."

Cori looked at him warily as he made his way to his drawers. Content he really was looking through his drawers, she went back to combing through her wet hair in the mirror.

As hard as he tried to focus on the task at hand, his mind kept wandering to the shapely femme Turtle standing nearby, barely covered with the towel she had on. The words of his hormone driven brother rang through his head as he felt his own shell tightening at the mere thought of her. He soon found himself peeking at her through the corner of his eye; that towel barely covered her curves. Though not as full-figured as Shelley, she was still very shapely. He shook his head, and tried to refocus, but soon realized that would be darn near impossible.

Cori glanced over as Raph turned and began walking out of the room.

As Raph reached the door, a thought occurred to him, and instead of leaving, he shut the door, and turned back around.

Cori, who was just about to undo her towel so she could get dressed, jumped when she heard Raph's voice.

"On second thought…"

Wide-eyed, Cori retied the knot on her towel quickly, and spun around to face Raph, who was leaned up against the doorpost.

Raph folded his arms as he looked back at her. "I need to ask you a question."

Cori's expression consisted of confusion, irritation, and exasperation, all in one shot.

"The other night, in the kitchen. Someone was talking." He looked at her accusively. "That was you, wasn't it?"

Cori stared at him for a moment, a blank expression on her face, before it turned irritated again, and she firmly pointed at the door behind him.

Raph shook his head. "Nah, I need an answer. Can you talk?"

Cori was getting angrier by the moment, and she began balling up her fists, and again, pointed to the door.

Raph gave her a defiant look.

If looks could kill, the glare she gave him, would've. Frustrated, she paced in a small circle, before finally stopping and looking back at him. She firmly shook her head no.

"What does that mean? No, you can't talk?"

She briefly shook her head vigorously, some of the water from her damp hair splashing the mirror she stood at.

Raph looked at her suspiciously.

Cori pointed towards the door again, one fist clenched in anger, while the other hand pointed towards the door.

Just as Raph was about to say something, Leo's voice interrupted him.

"RAPH!"

Cori looked towards the door, then back at Raph as a grin crossed her face. She then folded her arms, and nodded towards the door.

Raph glared at the door. He knew that being Leo's exclamation was that loud, Master Splinter's was soon to follow. He could already hear his walking stick firmly hitting the ground as he made his way across the room. "Ah shell…" He looked back at Cori, who wore a smug grin on her face. He huffed, and went to the door.

After he left, Cori slammed the door behind him, and took a deep breath, standing behind the door, just thinking. Her expression wavering between several different emotions, most notably being somewhat disturbed. She finally shook her head, and went to finally getting dressed.

Raph cautiously descended the stairs, seeing Leo and Master Splinter, both with stern expressions, standing at the bottom.

"What were you doing up there?" Master Splinter asked firmly.

"I was lookin' for something Master." Raph tried to sound innocent as possible, though he was fully aware that his Sensei wouldn't fall for it.

Master Splinter looked at his hands. "And where is this thing that you so desperately needed?"

Raph shrugged. "I couldn't find it?"

Master Splinter looked at all of his sons, and then pointed towards the other side of the room, before uttering the most feared words…

"TO THE HASHI!"

They collectively ushered a plaintive groan.

"But Master I…."

Master Splinter interrupted Leo's plea of innocence as he pointed towards the hashi again. "To the hashi! _Everyone_!"

The plaintive groan returned as even Donny was forced out of his perfectly innocent activities in order to pay for his brother's misbehavior.

"Why'd you have to go up there bro?" Mikey complained as he walked past Raph.

"Shutup." Raph muttered as they all skulked into the hashi.

"22 years old and we still get sent to the hashi…" Donny shook his head. "Ridiculous..."

* * *

After a while, the girls finally came downstairs.

Rita looked around briefly. "Where is everyone?"

Cori shrugged indifferently, and walked off.

Shelley stood there, looking around somewhat nervously, which didn't escape Salina's notice.

"Shelley, are you okay?"

Shelley appeared startled out of thought. "Huh?" she looked at Salina.

"You look, nervous." Salina observed her sister, looking a little confused. "Are you okay?"

Rita also looked concerned. "Something bothering you?"

Shelley nervously twirled a bit of her hair around one finger. "I'm fine." She said curtly, and quickly walked off.

Salina and Rita looked at each other.

Salina looked beyond puzzled. "Ok, did we miss something?"

Rita shrugged.


	23. Strained Relationships

Several hours later, all four of the guys, sore, and exhausted, trudged out of the hashi.

Master Splinter followed behind them. "I should hope we do not have to do this again anytime soon."

"No Sensei." Four tired voices said in unison.

"Dude, I'm starved." Mikey whined as he and Raph headed to the kitchen.

In there, Shelley was just finishing up the dinner dishes.

"You cookin' again?" Raph asked as they walked in.

"Nah, just like doing…." She stopped short when she turned around and noticed Mikey was also in the kitchen. She stared at him like a deer in headlights.

Mikey stared back at her, unsure of what to say.

But before he got to say anything, Shelley quickly put down the towel she used to dry her hands, and practically ran out of the kitchen.

"Shel…" Mikey tried to get her attention, but she was gone.

Raph pulled a cold pizza out of the fridge and sat down at the table with it, as his brother looked towards where Shelley ran. "You messed up man."

Mikey sighed sadly. "Yeah no kidding…"

* * *

Later on that evening, Raph was heading out to the garage, but noticed Cori was just sitting on an armchair, flipping through a magazine.

He looked at her curiously. "You comin'?"

Cori ignored him.

Raph looked at her for a moment. "You're mute, not deaf."

Still, no response, she just kept looking through the magazine.

Raph looked just a bit irritated. "So you just gonna ignore me?"

Cori let out an exasperated sigh, got up from her seat with her magazine, and pushed past Raph on the way up the stairs.

Raph looked after her. "Seriously?"

"Looks like I'm not the only one that messed up bro." Mikey quipped as he walked up to Raph.

Raph just looked at his brother, then towards where Cori went.

* * *

Shelley ventured into the lab, where she saw Rita with a pair of goggles on, mixing a couple different solutions.

"Whatcha doin?"

Her voice startled Rita, and she held her beakers steady before she dropped them. She turned around to face Shelley. She looked beyond confused. "Hey…what are you doing in here?"

Shelley shrugged, rubbing her elbow with one hand. "I dunno. Just kinda bored I guess."

Rita lifted her goggles. "Bored? No TV with Mikey today?"

"No." she said curtly.

Rita put down her beakers and sighed. "Ok seriously Shelley, what's going on? You're being weird. And that's saying something, even for you."

"Nothing." She whined. "I just wanted to like, say hi."

Rita gave her a disbelieving look. "You wanted to come say hi to your 'nerd' sister? In the lab?"

Shelley just stared back at Rita; she really wanted to tell her, but the whole situation was just too awkward.

Just then, Donny approached from the other side of the room. He looked somewhat surprised to see Shelley in there. "Hey…everything okay?"

Shelley looked at him for a moment, then at Rita. "Um…I gotta go." She then turned and quickly walked out of the lab.

"I dunno what's gotten into her." Rita stared after her, then turned back to Donny. "Seriously, did I miss something?"

Donny shrugged.

* * *

The next couple of days were pretty much the same. Shelley refused to occupy the same space as Mikey, and likewise with Cori in terms of Raph.

Mikey continued to grow increasingly forlorn, missing his TV buddy. Of all the times he usually spent just watching TV on his own, or endlessly annoying his brothers, when he finally got a taste of having a friend really there, he lost her.

Shelley on the other hand began experiencing anxiety. It was the first time since she'd been there that she was pretty much at a loss of what to do/who to talk to. Sure, she had her sisters, but Rita spent most of her day either holed up in the lab with Donny, or sleeping off her sickly state. Calla was pretty much always up top now with April and Casey, Salina was devotedly focused on becoming some kind of ninja master, and barely paid her anxious sister any mind. And Cori…being mute and standoffish, didn't make for the best company. Though she did tolerate her bubbly sister's ramblings, even though it often involved several silent sighs, eye rolls, and the occasional headache. So she contented herself with keeping the kitchen neat, her personal OCD.

Raph, far be it for him to be all broken up about someone not talking to him, but it really began getting under his shell. He was getting used to Cori's strange form of communication, and dare he admit it, even to himself, he started to miss the interaction. Despite the fact that she couldn't talk, and thereby not rattle on about nonsense, she had an air about her that just seemed; chill. He liked that about her. She didn't have Salina's type A personality, Rita's obsessive genius, nor Shelley's ditzy-ness. She was almost like Calla, but unlike Calla who seemed a bit more social, Cori was extremely selective. Not even always tolerating interactions between herself and her own sisters. He'd briefly wondered if it had always been that way and silently wished he could somehow figure her out. But there was no doing that now with her ignoring him. So as best as he tried to hide it, it was still evident that he was skulking around the lair.

Cori was annoyed. Extremely annoyed. She wanted nothing to do with Raph right now. She was irritated, agitated, aggravated…and hurt. She had trusted him enough to allow some form of interaction, interaction that she didn't even always allow her sisters. And it was almost as if he took it and ran with it, trying to pressure her into something. She hated that. Pressure. So she handled it the best way she knew how; by keeping her distance. Even though, deep down, she was starting to miss his company. She kind of liked his personality, which was saying a lot for her because she didn't really like much of anybody. She got along best with Calla and Shelley, she didn't care too much for Rita's scientific prowess, or Salina's constant nagging. She had begun to emerge from her shell, just for a moment, to see what Raph was like…and then he blew it. So she resorted to how she liked to do things; alone.


	24. Strained Relationships Pt 2

Donny walked into the kitchen late one night, just as Raph got in from the garage. He looked over at him curiously, before heading over to the coffee machine.

"No Cori?"

Raph huffed, grabbing a beer from the fridge. "No." he replied plainly.

"I thought she usually helped you in the garage." Donny turned to face his sullen brother as Raph took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Eh she's in some fussy chick mood." Raph waved it off, leaning back in his chair as he opened the beer.

Donny looked at him suspiciously. "What exactly did you _do_ when you went upstairs?"

Raph got defensive, almost glaring at Donny. "Nothin, what's it to ya?"

Just as Donny was about to say something else, Mikey walked into the kitchen. "Can't be as bad as walking in on her in the bathroom."

Donny looked surprised as he looked towards Mikey. "You _what_?"

Mikey plopped down at the table. "Yeah…now she won't talk to me anymore."

Donny turned to grab his coffee from the machine, then sat at the table with his brothers. "Why did you do that?"

"It was a mistake!" Mikey said defensively. "I had to pee, Leo _finally_ let me go, I ran into the bathroom, without knocking, and…." He sighed deeply, resting his chin in his hands. "I wish I knocked."

"Wow…that would explain her weird behavior today." Donny mused.

"You mean weirder than she already is?" Raph chuckled a bit.

Mikey punched him. "Hey!" he pointed a warning finger at his bigger brother. "Leave her alone!"

Raph would never admit it out loud, but his little brother's punch hurt much more than he expected it to. "Watch it Mikey." He glared.

"No _you_ watch it!" Mikey then got up from the table, roughly shoving his chair aside to the point it almost fell. "I'm going out."

Donny looked surprised. "Mikey…mad?" He looked at Raph. "This day just keeps getting stranger."

Raph fought the urge to rub where Mikey's fist connected with his shoulder. "Yeah…" he said as he looked after where Mikey went.

* * *

After training a couple of days later, Cori was headed to the room when she ran into Raph on the staircase. She began walking past him when Raph stopped her, putting his arm across the stairwell so she couldn't pass. "Not so fast."

Cori looked up and glared at him.

"What gives? What's your problem?"

Cori just rolled her eyes and attempted to push past him again.

Raph stepped in her way. "No, you're gonna tell me, however you can, what your problem is."

Cori folded her arms and glared at him. She refused to offer him any kind of feedback.

"Two can play that game." Raph said as he stood there, determinedly folding his arms as well.

Cori eventually unfolded her arms, and began forcefully pushing Raph.

He didn't expect the strength behind that first push, so it knocked him off balance briefly, but he quickly righted himself. "You're gonna have to do better than that." He smirked.

Cori clenched her fists in anger, and ended up turning around and going back down the stairs, Raph following her close behind.

"Get back here!"

Cori began walking to the lair's exit, but then an idea crossed her mind, and she diverted her course, straight to Master Splinter's room, then stood at the entrance, her fist poised to knock on the door.

Raph stopped short.

Cori then pointed towards the opposite end of the living room and mouthed, _"Go!"_

Raph glared at her for a moment, and finally just shook it off. "Whatever." He mumbled, and dejectedly walked off.

Cori, looking quite pleased with herself, went back to the staircase to go upstairs.

* * *

Mikey saw Shelley in the kitchen again, and stood at the entrance, trying to plan out what to say.

"Shelley?" His voice came across meek and a little nervous.

Shelley spun around to face Mikey. She stared at him nervously for a moment.

"I'm sorry, I never meant to…I'm sorry."

Shelley stared back at him for a moment, twirling some of her hair around one finger again. "Sure..." She muttered, and just left the kitchen.

Mikey sighed, and looked down before dejectedly heading to his room.

* * *

Later on that night, Raph joined Calla and Casey on the rooftop of April and Casey's apartment.

"Well well well, look who's _finally_ decided to join us." Casey chuckled.

"Yea yea yea." Raph muttered as he approached them.

"You and Cori not workin' in the garage tonight?" Calla asked curiously.

"No." he replied plainly.

"You ok man?" Casey looked confused. "You don't seem yourself."

Raph waved it off. "It's nothin'."

Just then, April joined them on the roof.

"I knew I could find you guys up here." She zipped up her jacket more. "It's so cold, I dunno how you guys do it."

"Just chillin. Literally." Laughed Calla.

"I see." April then noticed Raph. "Hey you, long time no see. I hear you've been working in the garage with Cori. How's that going?"

Raph shrugged, somewhat irritated now that everyone kept asking about her. "I dunno, she's got some weird attitude going on."

Calla nodded. "Yea, Cori will do that sometimes." She then looked at Raph curiously. "But I thought you two were getting along. What did you do?"

"Me?" Raph looked incredulous, yet suspiciously guilty. "I didn't do anything!"

Calla looked at him skeptically. "You sure? I mean Cori gets in her moods, but she usually has a trigger."

Raph finally let out an exasperated sigh. "It was nothin' ok, I was just tryna see if she could talk."

April looked at him curiously, folding her arms. "And how exactly did you do that?"

"I guess she just showered or whatever cos she had a towel on, and I just kinda stayed there in the room, told her I wouldn't leave until she told me the truth if she could really talk or not."

"Oh my gosh Raph seriously?!" Calla exclaimed.

Raph looked almost surprised by Calla's response. "Oh come on, it's not like I touched her or anything, is it really that big a deal?"

April and Calla responded with a resounding, "Yes!"

Casey looked at them, slightly amused. "I mean, I guess I kinda agree. Not one of your best moves man."

Raph looked uncomfortable.

Calla sighed deeply. "Raph, you can't do that to her. You invaded her privacy and…look, I don't know why Cori can't talk, none of us do. But if she really _can't_ , no doubt it pisses her off. And if she really _can_ , then she has a reason, she doesn't wanna share it, and therefore you also pissed her off."

"So why doesn't she just say something, tell me why she's pissed, however she can?"

"Cos that's just not how Cori works! I mean if she feels she needs to, she'll find a way. But otherwise, you just have to leave her alone, and wait for her to come around; if she ever does. Seriously, I'm surprised she hasn't tried to drop kick you…" She cocked her head to the side slightly. "Or has she?"

Raph shook his head. "Nah she just seems, like you said, pissed."

Calla shook her head. "You can't push her…in a way you broke her trust." She got up. "I'm takin it in early tonight guys. Gonna find Cori and just check on her."

"I'll leave the window unlocked for you." Said April.

"Cool, thanks." She then punched Raph, in the same spot where Mikey punched him not too long ago. "That's for my sister punk!"

Raph flinched a bit, but kept his composure, just watching to where Calla ran off.

April rubbed her arms vigorously. "Well I dunno about you guys, but I'm freezing, so I'm going back inside."

"Yeah me too babe." Casey then looked towards Raph. "You comin?"

Raph looked off into the distance. "Nah..." He glanced at them. "I'll catch up with you guys later."

Casey looked concerned. "Ok man, see ya."

"Yeah." Raph then stalked off.

* * *

Late that night, Calla climbed in the window to April's apartment, and closed it back after she got inside.

April looked over from the couch, where she was laying down and watching TV. She yawned. "You're back." She stretched a bit. "How'd it go? Did you find Cori?"

Calla took off her jacket and joined April on the couch. "Yeah…she's okay I guess." She shrugged. "Not like anyone can get much out of her these days, but you can tell she's irritated by him. She just wants him to leave her alone...she kinda wants _all_ of us to leave her alone." She shook her head and sighed. "Cori's always been the more temperamental out of all of us, but she's gotten even more distant since Daddy died."

"It must've been traumatic for her."

Calla nodded. "It was for all of us...I guess she just has a different way of expressing it..."


	25. Mp3 Player

Cori sat on the armchair in the far corner of the living room, looking bored as ever. She looked over towards the couch across the living room, at the TV program Shelley was watching. She could tell her sister wasn't all that into it, but just had it on, out of habit. She sighed, and just as she began getting lost in thought, a voice interrupted her.

"Hey."

Cori looked up to see Mikey standing there. He didn't look as jovial as he usually did, but he did his best to still flash a smile. She just looked at him, somewhat confused.

"A while back, I saw your mp3 player got messed up from the water when you guys almost drowned. So I went digging around my room and finally found this." Mikey lifted his closed hand, and opened it, to reveal a small mp3 player with black earphones. "You look bored, I figured you might want some tunes again."

Cori looked up at him for a moment, and smiled, then looked over at the mp3 player, slowly taking it.

"There's not a whole lot on there." Mikey shrugged. "You seem to like the punk rock scene so there's some stuff you might like. Linkin Park, Evanescence, Metallica, some Jay-Z…Coldplay if you're feelin' mellow..." He sighed. "Figured you might like it."

Cori briefly looked through the music selection, before looking back at Mikey, and bringing her hand to her chin, then out, signing "Thank you."

Mikey understood that much, and he nodded. "No prob." He stood there a moment longer as Cori looked through the music.

"Ya know, Raph's really not a bad guy."

Cori quickly looked up at him, and looked slightly uncomfortable at the mention of Raph.

"I mean, he can be a jerk sometimes…" Mikey looked pensive. "…okay a lot of times…" he shrugged. "…but that's just him. I heard what happened. I think that he just wanted you to talk to him just that bad, he didn't know how to go about it. Raph doesn't usually like anyone that much, so I'm guessing he really likes you."

Cori's eyes focused away from him, apparently thinking.

"Just thought I'd say that." He smiled, then gestured towards the mp3 player. "Enjoy."

Cori smiled slightly, and watched him walk off for a moment, before putting the earphones in and playing music.

* * *

Late that night, Raph eventually came back home, and began making his way through the living room, when he noticed Cori sitting on the couch.

She looked over at him, warily eyeing him as to see what his next move would be.

Raph looked over at her for a moment, before he just looked away and continued on his way up to his room.

Cori looked after him for a moment, before turning back to the magazine she had as she listened to music.

Shelley was just exiting the room she shared with her sisters when she ran into Leo in the hallway.

"Hey, you done in there? Just wanted to see if I could get something."

"Oh yeah, no problem." Shelley smiled. "All yours."

"Cool." Leo then looked at Shelley as she began walking away. "Hey Shelley."

Shelley turned around.

He took a deep breath. "I heard what happened with Mikey."

Shelley fidgeted somewhat nervously, starting to twirl her hair around one finger again. "Yeah…"

"I just want you to know, Mikey's not a jerk or anything. I mean he's kind of a clutz sometimes, makes mistakes, but he's not a bad guy. I know I'm a little biased cos he's my brother, but…try not to be too hard on him?"

Shelley looked at him for a moment before finally replying. "K."

Leo smiled a bit. "Thanks." He then went into his room.

Shelley stood in the hallway for a while, twirling her hair, looking distant, before she finally went downstairs. She found Raph sitting on the couch watching TV, and didn't see anything else worth doing, not that there ever was much, so she just down on the couch with him.

Raph lazily glanced over at her, then back at the TV.

Shelley looked at the TV with mild interest. She soon scrunched up her face a bit in confusion. "What is that?"

"Rugby." Raph muttered, chin rested on his fist.

Shelley watched as the players practically beat each other up. She then looked towards Raph. "You're big."

Raph looked over at her, annoyed at her random, off-the-wall comment, then back at the TV. "Yeah…"

"Like, really big."

Raph sighed, trying to hide his irritation. He knew she must have been bored, not talking to Mikey and all, but Mikey's ditzy friend was really starting to get on his nerves.

"I mean you're like, _huge_."

Raph sighed again.

Shelley turned back to the TV. "So weird."

Raph glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. _Look who's talking_.


	26. Making Amends

Mikey sat laid back against the wall, lazily flipping through channels on his bed, sighing deeply. He glanced at the clock. 3:03am, and he couldn't sleep.

Just then, he heard a soft knock on his door. He looked up to see Shelley leaned partially on the doorway. His blue eyes lit up and he sat up quickly. "Shelley."

"Hey." She said softly, doing her signature nervous twirling of hair around one finger.

Mikey stared at her expectantly, just glad she wasn't running from him for the first time in almost 4 days. "How are you?"

Shelley looked down, shaking her head slightly. "Not so good."

Mikey moved to sit on the edge of his bed. "Shelley…"

Shelley looked back at him.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to open the door on you, I just really had to pee, and I should've knocked…I'm sorry."

Shelley smiled slightly. "I know you didn't mean it. It was just…weird ya know?"

"I'm really sorry." Mikey repeated; he barely knew what else to say.

Shelley sighed and went to take a seat next to Mikey on the bed.

Mikey felt flushed as Shelley wrapped her arms around his arm, and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I know you're sorry. Like I said, it was just like, weird."

"I get ya." Mikey sighed. "I missed you."

Shelley smiled, cozying up to him. "Me too." She looked up at him. "Let's try make sure that doesn't happen again, k?"

Mikey raised his hand. "Oh I promise, I'll knock all the time. Even when I don't think anyone is in there, I'll knock. Even if the light is off, I'll _still_ knock."

Shelley giggled. "K." She then gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Now move over and put on Netflix. I got so tired of watching TV alone, or with Raph. All he watches is wrestling, monster truck rallies and rugby…which I really don't get."

Mikey laughed. "Yeah, that's Raph." As he put on Netflix, he couldn't help but smile over at Shelley wistfully; he was glad to have his buddy back.

* * *

Raph peered out of a sewer drain at the pouring rain outside. He was on his way out when he heard the pitter patter of rain drops overhead, and then he came to face this. He let out a sigh of frustration, then turned away and looked around. He begrudgingly set off for the garage; even though it just wasn't the same without Cori there. He was slightly irritated that for years he'd gone to the garage alone, no problem, but the minute an interesting, and rather hot, newcomer came along, all of a sudden he didn't enjoy it as much without her.

Raph sat, lazily tinkering with a part for the motorcycle, when he heard footsteps. He looked up to see Cori as she stepped foot into the garage, her boots slipping across the concrete floor.

Cori looked over at him as she paused, one foot on the second step from the bottom, the other on the ground floor.

Raph just looked at her for a moment, and found himself annoyed to actually be glad to see her there. But he still tried to mask that, keeping his cool. "Hey."

Cori gave him a brief nod, and continued on to her workstation. She then sat down, grabbed her power drill, and went to work, earphones in her ear, still using the mp3 player Mikey gave her.

After a while, Cori heaved a heavy sigh, and took the earphones out. Then she got up, and made her way over to Raph.

Raph hadn't even noticed she got up, until he felt her presence practically right over him. He looked up to see Cori standing next to him, hands on her hips. "What?"

Cori then swiftly punched him; same spot where Mikey and Calla punched him not too long before.

He winced, looking down as he briefly held his shoulder. "Ok, ok, I deserve that."

Cori then stared at him a moment longer, apparently in a state of indecision. "I talk, when I wanna talk."

Raph's head snapped up and he stared at her in wide-eyed shock.

" _Don't_ , push me."

"You can…"

Cori held up her pointer finger as she gave him a warning glare. "Not a word. Not a single, frickin' word to _anyone_ or I _swear_ I'll make your life a living _nightmare_. You will _live_ in the hashi…that's right, I know _all_ about that." She made sure to add gestures to the stress she put on her words of warning.

Raph couldn't believe his ears, he barely heard her threats, he was just amazed that she was talking. It took all he had not to jump out of his seat. "I knew it!" He had the inkling all along, but just couldn't prove it. He finally heard Cori's voice, which was a little deeper than her sisters', but without sounding in the slightest bit masculine; it was moreso sultry.

Cori folded her arms and shook her head as she looked at Raph. "Just couldn't leave it alone huh?"

"Of course not." Raph smirked.

"Of course not." Cori let out a slight laugh. "You're such a jerk, I swear." She made her way back to her workstation.

"So wait, that's it?"

Cori looked at him, somewhat confused. "What did you expect? You want me to sing or somethin?"

"Nah but…why don't you want anyone to know you can talk? Could you always talk? When…"

Cori held up her hand to stop his questions. "Could I always talk? No, I really couldn't talk right after…." She swallowed hard, looking away from him. "…right after Daddy left. It was about a year ago that I noticed I could talk again." She looked back at him. "As for your other question, don't worry about it. I have my reasons."

Raph looked completely baffled. "So you're just gonna…"

Cori turned the power drill on until it whirred loudly. "What?" She briefly cupped her ear towards him. "Can't hear you!" She pointed at the power drill. "The drill!"

Raph got the point. As hard as it was for him to accept that she wouldn't tell him _why_ she was keeping her talking a secret, he tried his best. Calla's advice echoed in his mind. _You can't push her._ So for once, he decided to listen, and refrained from pushing the issue. He just reveled in the fact that she wasn't ignoring him anymore, and what's more, she was talking to him; and _only_ to him. He was sure the rest of his questions would be answered in due time…


	27. Normal

A few days later, Leo smiled to himself as he observed his 'family' was back to normal; or at least their version of normal.

The tension from the strained relationships over the past few days had since died down, and everyone was more or less at peace, as they sat around the kitchen table, laughing and talking as always. The only one not with them was Calla, who spent a majority of her time up top with April and Casey. She only ventured down for training, brief hanging out, then back up top. But from his observation, this was actually a good thing. Instead of being outcast, she, as well as the others, seemed to have found their own, special place.

* * *

Late one night, Salina took a deep breath as she successfully completed a handstand in the dojo. Closing her eyes and concentrating, she slowly shifted her weight to one hand, and lifted the other off the ground. Having completed the move, she took a deep breath, steadying herself ever so carefully.

"Trying to get extra credit?"

Salina's eyes shot open and she wobbled a bit, almost losing her balance as Leo's voice broke her concentration. "Wha…" she then caught sight of Leo, appearing upside down because of her position. She looked at him standing nonchalantly in the doorway of the dojo, and almost immediately felt a pang of nervousness. "Leo…hey." She took a deep breath, trying to refocus. She didn't like to practice in front of him; it always made her slightly nervous, which is why she chose such a late time to practice in the first place.

"Sorry if I startled you." Leo said, as he walked into the dojo.

"It's fine." She lied, shifting her gaze away from him. She smiled slightly. "And no, I'm not trying to get extra credit."

Leo chuckled. "The real test is this weekend at the campsite."

"Yeah I know." Salina sighed. "Sensei says that's the next stage of our training." She briefly thought back to the conclusion of the training session earlier that day when Master Splinter announced that they would be traveling to an abandoned cabin upstate in order to complete this stage, and begin the next stage of their training. It was a challenge that she was determined to be ready for. She closed her eyes as she slowly shifted her weight to her other hand, and completed the handstand on just that one. Hearing a noise close to her, Salina opened her eyes again, in time to see Leo complete the one-hand handstand in front of her, rather quickly. "Show off." She remarked with a slight smile.

"Don't worry, you'll be able to do this too." He smirked.

Salina sighed. "Hopefully sooner than later."

"You will…" Leo stared at her for a moment. "You're doing really well."

Salina looked at him, into those blue eyes that stared at her so intently. "Thanks…" she began to lose concentration and balance, and closed her eyes again. _Focus, Salina, focus_. She slowly shifted back to her other hand and opened her eyes again. "Sensei says my focus has improved."

Leo smiled a bit, admiring her dedication. "It has…you'll be a ninja master before long." he then quickly shifted to his other hand. "Just like yours truly." He offered a smug grin.

Salina fought the urge to laugh. "Go away Leo."

Leo laughed.

* * *

Calla sat on the couch with Casey as he taught her how to play Madden.

April stood behind the couch and folded her arms as she looked at Calla. "Calla, shouldn't you be packing?"

"Huh?" Calla asked absent-mindedly.

"For your trip. Ya know, the camping trip coming up?"

"Oh that…" Calla's fingers hit the controls on the Xbox controller quickly. "In a sec…not like I have much to pack." She shrugged. "It's only a couple of nights.

"Noooo freakin' way!" Casey stared at the screen in disbelief, almost dropping his controller.

"Yay I did it!" Calla held her hands up triumphantly. She then turned to Casey. "I beat you at your own game, yeahh!" she gloated.

Casey held his hands up in the air as he looked at the screen. "Un-freakin' believeable." He turned to April. "How'd she beat me at my own game?!"

"The student has surpassed the master." April grinned.

"Hey weren't you guys supposed to be coming to this, uh, Ninja camp thing too?" Calla asked.

April nodded. "We were, but we have things to do here. Besides, we did our stint with Ninja camp."

Casey shuddered.

"But we'll see you guys off to the train yard, and we'll see you a couple of days after." April reassured her.

"Ok…" Calla sighed, reluctantly getting up from the couch. "Guess I'll go pack."

* * *

Later that evening, Donny had Rita hooked up to her nebulizer.

"We're gonna have to pack that too." Donny said, gesturing towards the machine Rita was using.

Rita nodded.

He looked at her for a moment and sighed, putting down the pen he was using to write notes. "I don't know if you'll be up to this."

Rita took a deep breath, and pulled the machine from her face. "Donny, you heard Master, we need this to complete our training."

Donny walked over to her. "I know, but your lung damage was so extensive, I just don't want to reverse all your progress."

Rita offered a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine. Besides, I've got the most qualified, and might I say, awesome, mutant doctor to look after me." She leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Everything will be ok."

Donny smiled, somewhat bashfully, feeling flushed at the kiss. "Well…can't argue there."

Rita laughed.

Donny stared back at her for a moment, finding himself captivated by the pretty mutant he'd had the privilege of caring for these past few months.

It was then Rita realized just how intently Donny was staring at her, and before long, she felt him move closer and his lips meet hers. She closed her eyes as Donny gently kissed her.

After a moment, Donny pulled back. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be." She smiled shyly. "I liked it…"

Donny smiled a bit before he leaned in and kissed her again.

Just then, they heard footsteps approaching the lab, and quickly stepped back from each other in time to see Leo enter the lab, looking somewhat agitated.

"Hey Donny…" he turned the corner, and looked at Donny and Rita somewhat confused. "Did I interrupt something?"

Donny shook his head. "Nope…just uh…" he looked towards Rita.

"Nebulizer." Rita held up the mask to her machine. "Just part of my treatment." She smiled.

"Mmhm…okay." He shook his head. "Anyway, Donny you have anymore of that antacid stuff you made? Mikey ate something."

"Again?" Donny and Rita said together.

Leo nodded. "Again."

"Hold on, I'll bring it to him." Donny turned around briefly.

"Thanks." Said Leo. "And make sure you pack a little extra for the trip. We've got camp in 3 days, and you know how Mikey _swears_ he can tell the good berries from the bad ones."

Donny shook his head. "I'm on it."

Leo then turned and left the lab.

Donny turned to face Rita. "You ok?"

Rita nodded, smiling somewhat shyly. "Yeah…you?"

"Beyond ok." smiled Donny.

Rita smiled back.

Donny gestured towards the mask still in her hand. "Finish your treatment. I can at least get you as well as possible before this trip."

Rita complied and put the mask for her nebulizer back on.


	28. Campfire

A few days later, under the dark of early morning, they all got ready to take their trip.

As Raph got ready, he heard a knock at his door, and looked up as it began opening.

Cori quietly slipped in, briefly looking behind her as she closed the door behind her.

"Wassup?"

Cori glanced back towards the door, then walked further into the room. "Mikey said you were lookin for me, wassup?" she kept her voice low, lest someone hear her as they passed Raph's room.

Raph smiled a bit; he was still glad Cori was talking; though he wish he knew why she wouldn't talk to anyone else. He pushed the thought aside as he turned to his bureau drawers. "Because I gotta give you somethin'."

Cori looked at him curiously.

Raph turned around, holding a black and dark pink camo design motorcycle helmet out to her. "Whaddaya say we use this trip to try our baby out?"

Cori's eyes briefly widened and a big smile came over her face. "You, freakin, _rock_!" She then quickly covered her mouth, and glanced towards the door, afraid someone might've heard her.

Raph offered a smug grin. "I know."

Cori took the helmet and admired it before looking at Raph. "Thanks." She smiled.

"No prob hot stuff." Raph smirked.

A loud knock came to the door.

"Come on let's go folks! We're wasting night time here!" Leo announced as he walked down the hallway.

Raph gestured towards the door. "Let's go."

* * *

They all made their way to the garage, where Raph and Cori got on the motorcycle.

Calla admired the bike. "Nice work guys, that thing looks freakin' awesome."

Cori nodded.

"Thanks." Raph gestured towards the van. "You better get in there before they leave ya."

Calla frowned as she looked at the van. "I wish you guys had a sidecar or something. I gotta be crowded up with everyone in there."

"Good luck." Raph smirked as he revved the bike's engine.

Calla rolled her eyes and went to the van.

"All aboard!" said Donny as he sat in the driver's seat.

Salina, being the most slender of the group, sat between the driver and passenger.

Being a little more cramped in the back, having to fit Rita, Mikey, Shelley, Splinter and Calla, plus their stuff, Shelley ended up sitting on Mikey's lap; which he of course had no problem with.

"It might be a bumpy ride guys, the shocks are in need of a little work." Donny advised as they began moving.

Mikey thought about that for a moment, then looked at Shelley. "Being it's gonna be a bumpy ride umm…I apologize in advance."

Shelley looked at him, innocently confused. "Why?"

"Ummm…"

Splinter gave his youngest son a warning look.

Mikey grinned sheepishly. "You know things shift during the ride, and if you notice anything…I've got a really big, uh, _flashlight_ in my pocket."

"Ok!" Shelley smiled. "No problem."

Calla shook her head. "She's clueless…and I'm grossed out."

Rita sighed.

* * *

After about a two hour journey, they finally slowed down as they reached a clearing and caught sight of a rather run down looking cabin.

Donny parked the van in the shadows of the side of the cabin. Raph parked close by. Everyone quickly got out of the van, eager to stretch their legs after the long journey.

Master Splinter looked rather pleased after he stretched. "We have arrived." He announced as he walked ahead of the crew, over to the cabin.

Shelley looked at the cabin warily. "Ohmygosh, I bet there's _tons_ of bugs in there."

"Shelley, you do realize we've hidden out in worst right?" Calla remarked as she walked past Shelley.

"I know…" Shelley pouted. "But like, stillll."

Everyone ignored Shelley, except for Mikey who put a reassuring arm around her shoulder, as they walked over to the cabin.

As they walked into the cabin, Rita sneezed a few times.

"You ok?" Donny looked concerned.

Rita smiled. "It's just a little dusty Donny, relax."

Donny sighed as he looked around at the dusty cabin.

"Well everyone, there are a couple of rooms in the back. One room for the girls, one for the guys. I suggest everyone pick a room and get to settling in." Leo announced.

"Leonardo is right. Get settled today, our training begins first thing in the morning." Master Splinter agreed.

"And when he _says_ first thing in the morning, he _means_ first thing in the morning." Raph said towards Cori and Calla, who were standing next to him.

They looked worried.

"Which room has less bugs?" asked Shelley as she saw everyone heading towards the back of the cabin.

Rita sighed deeply. "This is gonna be a long night."

* * *

The next day, just as he promised, as daylight barely broke through the trees around the cabin, Master Splinter stood in the cabin's living room and shouted out a few commands in Japanese.

The girls, sharing one bed, barely moved at first, until they soon heard the thunderous steps of the boys next door.

Salina was the first up, practically knocking Shelley off the bed.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

Before long, she was forced out of bed, and the 9 mutants stood in the living room in front of Master Splinter, half asleep and looking somewhat disheveled.

"You must be prepared at any time, for anything!" He pointed towards the door. "Run!"

"Now?" Calla asked, confused.

"Run!" Master Splinter ordered again.

They all quickly complied.

"But I haven't even had breakfast yet…" whined Shelley, lagging at the back of the line.

* * *

The next few days consisted of much the same, awaking at the break of dawn, running several laps through the forest, followed by a rather intricate obstacle course Master Splinter himself constructed.

The last day consisted of intense sparring.

They each had to spar at the same time, to keep them focused on only their opponent; particularly useful in Donny's case in order to keep him from focusing so much on how Rita was doing.

As Master Splinter watched the matches, he nodded in approval. The girls were getting stronger, more skilled. They're level of skill was beginning to prove a match for their more experienced sparring partners. He began thinking of the weapons he was going to assign to the girls.

Rita briefly puffed on her inhaler between matches, before Master Splinter switched their partners, and the match began again.

The matches continued until everyone had sparred with each other.

* * *

Later that evening, as a reward for their hard work, they were able to relax before their journey back the following night.

A few of the crew sat around the campfire, enjoying it's warmth and roasting a few marshmallows.

Cori walked into the kitchen and saw the bag of marshmallows Mikey was taking outside. She pointed at them and looked towards him quizzically.

"Oh these? We're gonna roast them around the campfire!" Mikey answered excitedly as he ran outside.

Leo, also on his way out the door, observed Cori as she became visibly uneasy. "Hey, you ok?"

Cori snapped out of her brief trance and looked towards Leo. She then quickly nodded and began heading outside. She slowly approached the group, sitting around the campfire.

"This won't do. Time to turn it up a notch!" said Mikey as he got closer to the dying fire.

"Be careful with that Mikey." Warned Donny, moving him and Rita back a bit from the fire.

"Don't worry bro, I got this!" Mikey then proceeded to pour lighter fluid, and the fire flared up considerably, orange flames ascending high into the sky. "Wooo yeahh!"

Through the flames, Raph caught sight of Cori, who froze in her tracks, eyes focused intently on the fire. He squinted his eyes briefly, trying to see what was wrong.

"Cori?" Calla asked, noticing Cori's demeanor.

Mikey, oblivious, poured more lighter fluid, and as she flames flared up again, Cori suddenly bolted off, and into the forest.

"What the…" Donny looked puzzled. "What just happened?"

Without missing a beat, Raph jumped up. "I dunno, but I'm on it."

"Look what you did Mikey!" scolded Leo.

"Huh, what?" Mikey looked around.

"Where'd Cori go?" Shelley asked curiously. "Mikey! You shoulda given Raph your flashlight! The woods are dark!"

Mikey, confused at first as to what Shelley was talking about, suddenly remembered his 'flashlight' comment a few days ago. He then looked off to where Raph went. "Uhhh, I don't think Raph wants _that_ flashlight…"


	29. Broken Silence

Cori ran as fast as her legs could carry her. It didn't matter that the thick brush and jagged branches snagged her clothes, and scraped at her skin; she just knew she had to run as fast and as far as she could.

Following the path of broken branches and trampled grass, Raph followed Cori out to a clearing of trees, a couple miles from their campsite. There, he didn't really know how to process what he saw. Cori looked, for lack of a better explanation, as if she were having a panic attack.

Cori paced back and forth, breathing heavily, shaking, muttering to herself, tears running down her face.

"Hey…"

Cori looked over quickly, eyes widened, and briefly looked at Raph before going back to her pacing. "You shouldn't be here…I'm fine, everything's fine, everything's fine, everything's fine…." She repeated this to herself several times; but even _she_ didn't believe it.

"Cori what's wrong?" Raph was beyond worried, and though he'd never admit it, a little scared.

Cori shook her head. "Nothing, nothing, nothing…"

"You don't expect me to believe that, do you?"

Cori suddenly broke into uncontrollable sobbing. "The fire, the fire is everywhere!" She appeared to be brushing off invisible flames before she collapsed to her knees, head down, hands over the back of her head grasping her head so tightly she was almost pulling her own hair. She suddenly lifted her head. "That's how he died!" she cried out.

Raph approached her and knelt down in front of her. "Cori, hey, hey, listen to me." He gently grabbed her wrists, trying to stop her from pulling at her hair. "That's how _who_ died?"

She resisted Raph's pulling, but to no avail, he pulled her hands down and she rocked back and forth for a bit before she finally looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. "That's how daddy died!" She nearly collapsed further onto the ground, but Raph caught her.

"The fire! It killed him!" she cried.

Raph shook his head, trying to grasp what Cori was saying. "I thought no one knew where your father went, how he died…."

Cori quickly looked at Raph. "No one but me! I saw it! I saw those…people, those horrible, _awful_ people…" she closed her eyes tightly and looked down. "It won't get out of my head...they don't know…" her head snapped up, looking at Raph again. "…and you can't tell them. They can never know, never, never, never, never…they can never know how it happened…"

Raph pulled her closer until Cori was leaned against him, crying into his chest. He sighed deeply, and spoke after a few moments. "At the risk of sounding like Leo, you can't hold this in anymore…"

Cori shook her head vigorously. "I can't tell them, I can't…they won't be able to take it."

"Then tell me."

Cori looked at the concern in his eyes, and stared at him for a moment before she took a deep, jagged breath. "I've never told anyone…"

"And I'm not just anyone….tell me."

Cori looked away from him and took another deep breath. She was quiet for the next few minutes.

Raph looked at her intently.

"We just hid Calla…I was the last one to be hidden…"

* * *

 _Dr. Rios rushed Cori along, and into the large barn in the abandoned town._

 _"Come on, I have to hide you up there." Dr. Rios began heading towards a ladder when he didn't hear Cori's footsteps anymore. He turned around to see her standing there, by the door, staring at him. "Andale Corina!" he rushed, somewhat annoyed at her sudden stubborn streak._

 _Cori just stared. "Why are you leaving us?" She fought back the strong urge to burst into tears, her trembling lip evidence of such._

 _Dr. Rios heaved a heavy sigh; it was apparent by his expression that all of this, leaving them, was painful for him too. "Cori…" he walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Por favor hija, I need to hide you."_

 _"No…" Cori shook her head defiantly. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me why you're leaving us. You put_ _her_ _in charge so I know you're not planning on coming back…" she quickly wiped away the tears that began to fall. "Why daddy?"_

 _Dr. Rios drew her into a tight hug. He sighed deeply once more, then pulled back. "Because I can't drag you all across the world for the rest of your lives. I have to go get rid of those people. Your mother killed one of those scientists, I heard them complain about it. There are two left." He looked away, almost ashamed at what he had to say next. "I have to take care of them."_

 _"But if that's the case then you'll come back. Right?" Cori looked up at him with hopeful eyes._

 _Dr. Rios looked down and slowly shook his head. "I don't know if that's going to be the case." He shut his eyes tightly, forcing back his own tears. "I need you all to be safe. With, or without me." He opened his eyes and looked back at her. "I need to do this."_

 _"Salina won't listen to me…"_

 _Dr. Rios put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "She will. Give her time. Remember, she's scared too." He looked around briefly. "Come on, I need to hide you."_

 _Cori reluctantly began following him to the second level of the barn._

 _"Sit here, don't move, don't go anywhere…"_

 _"For a week, I know…" She looked up at him. "If you can, will you come back?"_

 _Dr. Rios smiled. "Of course mi hija." He gave her a quick hug, then reluctantly began leaving._

 _"Bye daddy." Cori muttered as she watched him leave._

 _Dr. Rios descended the stairs, and just as he reached the bottom, he heard a voice._

 _"There you are Richard."_

 _Dr. Rios spun around to face three familiar faces._

 _"Surprise." One grinned. "Nice job trying to evade us, seriously. Good job."_

 _A woman stepped forward. "But not, good, enough." She looked around briefly. "Where are they Richard?"_

 _Dr. Rios stared back at them defiantly. "Safe."_

 _Cori, hearing the voices, peeked out to see her father in a stand-off with the three people. Her heart raced; she doubted this was his part of his plan._

 _"Safe?" one of the men chuckled, flashing a gold tooth. "Ohhh not for long. I have men searching this_ _entire_ _region quite thoroughly. We_ _will_ _find them."_

 _"You speak up now, and maybe we'll let you help with their testing once we get them back to the lab." The woman grinned. "We've got a whole set up just waiting for them."_

 _Dr. Rios clenched his fist in anger. "Never." His right hand hovered around his pocket._

 _The man with the gold tooth pulled out a gun. "Their location Richard."_

 _Dr. Rios muttered a short prayer, then quickly reached for his pocket, pulled out a gun, and shot the woman._

 _No one saw it coming, and she fell to the ground, stunned and bleeding profusely from the wound in her chest._

 _Cori gasped, putting her hand over her mouth, making sure not to utter a sound, but almost did when the man with the gold tooth fired at Dr. Rios, shooting him three times._

 _Dr. Rios fell to the ground._

 _The man with the gold tooth spoke quickly into a walkie talkie. "Get here quick! Dr. Marina is down! I think he hit her heart!"_

 _"I did." Dr. Rios muttered, coughing up a bit of blood._

 _The third person who remained silent for the most part, leaned down and began applying pressure to the woman's wound._

 _Dr. Rios laid on the ground, in pain and bleeding from the three wounds; two to his legs, one to his side. He looked over and saw the two people struggling to keep the doctor alive. Things weren't supposed to go this way; he was supposed to be able to confront and shoot the last two scientists at the same time. Gathering all his strength, he lifted his body slightly, and shot at her twice more._

 _The man with the gold tooth jumped up and shot Dr. Rios another three times._

 _The other person with them looked down at Dr. Marina, astonished. She had since stopped breathing._

 _Cori held in her screams with all her might as she stared down at her father, bleeding profusely from the six gunshot wounds he sustained._

 _Dr. Rios looked up and saw Cori peeking down at him, and even from that distance could see the tears streaming down her face. He saw her start to get up, and shook his head in response._

 _"You will pay for that!" the man with the gold tooth angrily stood over him. "She was an integral part of this experiment!" He then looked at Dr. Rios curiously. "But of course you knew that. That's why you shot her."_

 _"Killed her." The other person, a lab assistant stood up, shock on his face. "He killed her." He shook his head in disbelief. "She's dead."_

 _The man with the gold tooth looked back at Dr. Rios, pointing his gun at his chest. "And you're next." With that, he pulled the trigger, and added a 7_ _th_ _wound, a fatal one to his chest._

 _Cori removed her hands from her mouth, which was now agape in disbelief as she stared down at her father, who was barely holding on to life. Her head shook slightly in disbelief._

 _"I'll grab her body." The man with the gold tooth said as he put his gun away and walked over to the dead doctor and the assistant nearby. "Torch this place."_

 _The man nodded, and went outside for a moment._

 _Cori began standing up to try go to her father's side, but the man soon came back with a can of gasoline, and began spreading it everywhere, even on Dr. Rios himself._

 _The man then lit a few matches and tossed them around the barn. "Don't worry, we'll take care of your kids." He grinned, then left the barn._

 _It wasn't long before the flames began to rage in the barn._

 _Cori looked around, panicked. The floor next to her caved in as the flames reached the second level. She had no choice but to leave her hiding spot, so she went to the ladder. Halfway down it broke, and she fell, almost into flames. She shrieked and jumped up, running to her father's side. "Daddy!" tears ran down her cheeks. "Come on, let me get you out of here! Rita can fix you!"_

 _Dr. Rios could barely move, but shook his head slightly. "No…" he just glanced off to the side. "Corridor…" he muttered._

 _"Daddy please don't make me leave you like this! Come on!" She tried desperately to move him, to carry him, but he was too heavy, and the flames were taking over the barn. If she didn't go, they both would've died, and his death would've been in vain._

 _"Cori…go." His voice was fading._

 _She knew she couldn't save him; she'd never be able to get him to Rita in time. Heart heavy, she stared down at him as the fire raged around her. A flaming wooden beam soon fell down right next to her. She jumped and screamed. She looked back at her father just as he closed his eyes. Cori finally turned and ran towards the exit of the barn, when she saw the people were still standing outside. Her heart raced, it's then when she remembered her father mentioned a corridor, and she caught sight of a flight of stairs to her left, going down underground, so she ran towards them, and down the long corridor._

 _It led her to a building, in which she went in, and climbed the stairs to an attic-like space at the top. Across the street she could see the barn burning up, collapsing in on itself. Tears ran down her face as she sobbed. Then the barn exploded from within; there must have been old explosives somewhere in there. Cori screamed long and loud, until her chest and throat burned immensely, then collapsed to the floor, crying._

* * *

Raph was almost moved to tears, as Cori, now calmer, laid in his arms as he leaned against a tree.

"I've never told anyone…I couldn't talk at first, for the first 3 years without daddy. Then about 3 years ago my throat felt different; I could talk again…but I wouldn't tell them. I knew if I could talk, they'd ask me questions. If I didn't talk, and didn't learn sign language, they couldn't ask me anything." she looked at Raph. "They can never know."

Raph was silent for a moment. "They have to." He looked at her. "They deserve to know too."

Cori sat up. "They'll hate me for not saying anything before. For lying and telling them I couldn't talk…"

Raph sat up. "They might, I ain't gonna lie to ya…but it's the right thing to do."

Cori looked up at him, looking beyond scared.

"I'll be right there with you."

Cori looked down and sighed.

"They've been gone an awfully long time." Said Salina, looking worried.

Just as Leo was about to offer a response, they saw Raph and Cori approach the campsite, with the now more subdued fire.

"You're back!" Salina breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is she okay?" Calla asked Raph.

Cori took a deep breath. "I'm fine."

"Oh good…" Salina stopped short when she realized that Cori just talked.

Everyone sat around, mouths agape.

"Did…did you just like, _talk_?" asked Shelley.

Cori nodded. "Yeah…" she looked up at her sisters. "I could talk for the past 3 years I just…didn't."

"Why?" Salina approached her. "Why didn't you talk to us? What happened?"

Cori looked at Raph, who simply nodded in response. She then took another deep breath and looked towards her sisters. "You're gonna wanna sit down for this…"

She sat and explained the entire story to her sisters.


	30. Ice Sliding

Almost an hour later, they all sat in an uncomfortable silence, with only the sounds of the crackling fire and intermittent wind blowing through the trees.

Calla suddenly got up and ran off.

Shelley quietly sobbed into Mikey's chest as he gently rubbed her back.

"Dude…" Mikey swallowed hard, trying to avoid tears himself.

Salina appeared to be in a state of indecision as she stared at the ground, then she took a deep breath, got up and left.

"Thank you for telling us." Rita said softly. "I think we all needed the closure…" she then quietly got up and walked off.

Cori held back tears. "I knew this was a bad idea…" she muttered, putting her head in her hands.

Raph turned to her. "They needed to know."

"Yeah…" Cori then got up and walked off.

Shelley, still sniffling, soon got up. "I need a nap." She then went into the house.

Master Splinter sighed as he sat at the fire with Leo, Raph, Donny and Mikey. "Now, the true healing may begin." He nodded resolutely.

* * *

The next day, and even their journey back home was wrought with silence as the sisters all came to grips with the reality of Cori's story.

Calla immediately went back to April and Casey's when they returned, and after relaying the story to them, went into a period of silence.

* * *

Master Splinter sat at the kitchen table sipping tea late one evening, when Leo walked in. Master Splinter looked up at Leo's somewhat somber mood as he made his way to the fridge. He then sipped some more tea.

Leo took a can of soda from the fridge, then sat down at the kitchen table, across from Master Splinter. He sighed deeply. "How long do you think this'll last? Their silence?"

Master Splinter warmed his hands on the porcelain tea cup before lifting it again. "It will take time my son. They were broken in more ways than we could imagine…they are still healing."

Leo looked off towards the living room as Salina passed through. "She won't say much."

Master Splinter took another sip of tea. "That is to be expected."

Leo turned to Master Splinter. "Is that why we haven't trained since we got back?"

Master Splinter nodded. "Their bodies are able…their hearts and mind…not yet." He sipped some more tea and briefly patted Leo's hand. "In time, my son, in time."

* * *

Late that night, Leo entered the dojo for some late night training when he found Salina in there, sitting, looking distant in the middle of the floor. Her hair was down, cascading around her; far from her usual well put together look. She looked for lack of a better word; lost.

"Hey." Said Leo.

Salina, who hadn't even noticed that Leo walked in, suddenly looked up. "Hey…" she pushed some hair away from her face to see him better.

Leo sat down in front of her. "How's it goin?"

Salina looked off to nowhere in particular and shrugged. "It's goin." She sighed deeply. "I was hoping to get my mind off of things by doing some stretches…but…I can't."

"I see…" Leo paused, searching for the right words. "I know it's hard, but you all will get through this."

"Yeah…" Salina sighed.

Leo thought for a moment. "In the meantime, I think I might know of something that might prove to be a better distraction."

Salina looked back at him curiously.

Leo started getting up. "Grab your jacket and follow me up top."

Though somewhat puzzled, Salina quietly complied.

* * *

Leo and Salina were soon up top, walking through Central Park.

Salina shivered a bit and zipped up her jacket all the way.

Leo glanced at her. "Yeah it's pretty cold out."

Salina glanced at him, noticing his jacket was open. "You're not cold?"

Leo shook his head briefly. "Not really. As Donny would say, 'we're cold-blooded, so our bodies adapt to surrounding temperatures moreso than warm-blooded mammals'." He said, doing his best Donny impression.

Salina chuckled a bit before looking down. She then looked around briefly. "Where are we going anyway?"

Leo looked around. "I think we're almost there."

They then turned a corner, and came to a tree-lined frozen pond.

Salina froze, then looked at Leo. "Is there a reason why we're here?" she sounded almost offended; he knew of her relationship with frozen bodies of water.

Leo smiled a bit, then walking over to the edge of the pond, tapped his foot on the solid ice.

"What are y…"

"Relax…" Leo reassured, he then stepped all the way on, and slid around a bit, before turning to face Salina. "Sometimes in life, there comes a time where we must face our fears. The victory of overcoming a fear, can give us the confidence to get through anything…even coming to terms with a tragedy we had no control over."

Salina stared back at him, like a deer in headlights.

Leo slid a little closer to her. "Fortunately, we don't always have to conquer these fears alone." He then held out one hand to her. "Join me?"

Salina looked at his hand, then at the ice, then to Leo, and began getting captivated by the sincere blue eyes that stared back at her. Finally, taking a deep breath, she stepped closer, and took Leo's hand as she carefully stepped onto the ice. Both feet on the ice, the grip on her boots failed and she almost slipped, but Leo quickly caught her.

"Relax..." He reassured, one arm around her waist. "I got you."

Salina looked up at him briefly, before shyly looking away, and allowing him to guide her further onto the ice. "It isn't gonna break is it?" Still remembering her first encounter with ice in New York City.

Leo shook his head. "No, this one is shallow, so it freezes solid this time of year. But I'll teach you a trick…" He rubbed his foot over the ice and tapped it slightly. "Listen to it, become one with the ice." He joked.

Salina laughed lightly.

"Hear that? That means it's solid. But if it vibrates in any way, it's a no go."

Salina nodded slightly. "Good to know."

Leo slid around a little more, letting his hand slip away from Salina's waist.

She looked uneasy, trying to steady herself on the slick surface.

"It's ok, just relax into it." Leo reassured, still keeping hold of her hand.

Salina took a deep breath, and started allowing herself to relax as she slid her boots across the ice. She felt her mind slowly letting go of the troubling news of her dad as she became more focused on stabilizing herself.

Leo guided her across the ice, until she finally, slowly, let go of his hand, and started gliding across the ice on her own. "Hey look, you're doing it." He smiled.

A small smile crept across her face for the first time in days as she felt herself, 'becoming one with the ice'.

Leo admired Salina as her confidence grew, taking more deliberately placed, graceful steps as she slid across the ice. She even did a few spins, hair twirling around her as she did.

Salina smiled and giggled a bit to herself as she got a hold of the whole ice 'sliding' thing, and Leo joined her, sliding and spinning around. She almost forgot about her worries, her pain; it all disappeared into the chilly night air. She looked over at Leo at one point, and noticed he was staring at her rather intently. It was then she was so caught up looking back at him, that she lost her footing, and slipped and fell flat on her bottom.

Leo slid over and helped her up. "You okay?"

Salina laughed a bit. "Yeah…my ego is a little bruised but otherwise I'm fine."

Leo chuckled a bit. "Well that'll heal."

Salina looked up at him and smiled back. "Thank you."

Leo looked back at her, pushing a few strands of hair away from her face. "Anytime."

Salina once again found herself captivated by his gaze, and stared back at him. She didn't even realize his face was drawing closer to hers until she felt his lips against hers. She found herself closing her eyes as she took in the feeling of Leo gently kissing her.

After a moment, he pulled back and looked at her, studying her reaction. Neither of them said anything, their warm breath creating small clouds in the cold night air. Soon Leo leaned back in and kissed her again.

* * *

*This scene was thought up after listening to "Central Park" on the King Kong Soundtrack. I highly recommend listening to it while reading this scene to get a good feel of it ;-)


	31. Something Amiss

Slowly but surely, the fog over the household lifted. The guys left the girls be as they had a heart to heart one day.

Master Splinter stood nearby, and after he saw them emerge from the room, with a few stray tears, but smiling overall, he nodded in approval and breathed a sigh of relief.

Training shortly thereafter commenced once more.

* * *

After their first day back in training, Raph and Cori performed some maintenance on the cycle a bit, then headed out that night for a test drive. They soon ended up on the top level of a parking garage downtown.

Raph used a screwdriver he brought out with him to tighten a couple of things on the bike, then he stepped back and admired his work. "Not bad." He looked to the side, and noticed Cori wasn't standing next to him anymore. She was standing at the railing of the parking garage.

Cori looked out at the city, leaning against the railing.

"You good?"

Cori looked to the side to see Raph standing there. She smiled a bit before looking back out at the city. "Yeah, I'm good."

Raph leaned his elbows on the railing, looking out at the city as well. "Your and your sisters cool?"

Cori nodded. "Yeah they are…I still think they wished I told them sooner." She shrugged. "But oh well. I don't have to hide the fact I can talk anymore…not sure if that's a good thing."

"Why not?"

"That means Salina and I might start arguing again."

Raph smirked. "Yeah well, that'll happen. But I think you guys are good for now."

"Yeah..." Cori sighed, then shivered a bit. "Man it's cold out here. I think this is the first time we've spent winter in a place that's so cold."

"Ah it ain't all that bad." Said Raph. He looked at her for a moment. "You need someone to warm you up?"

Cori smirked a bit, turning to him. "Why you offering?"

Raph looked her over for a moment. "Maybe."

Cori just watched as Raph stepped in front of her. "And how does blocking my view help me get warmer?"

Raph put a hand on her waist, pulled her closer, and leaned in. "Trust me, this is a much better view."

Before Cori could respond, she felt Raph's lips on hers.

Cori closed her eyes and took in the feeling, and started kissing him back.

After a moment, they pulled back and stared at each other for a moment.

"You're right, much better view."

Raph smirked, before leaning in and kissing her again.

* * *

A few nights later, Casey and April had come in from some errands and felt a cold chill as soon as they got in.

April shivered. "Oh my gosh, did you leave the windows open again?"

Casey shook briefly. "No…" he looked around, stepping in front of April, just in case their home had been broken into. "Calla! Where are you?"

April and Casey walked around slowly, cautiously looking around, when they noticed the window by the fire escape was wide open.

Casey stepped over to it, then peeked his head out of the window. "Calla?"

There was brief silence before he got an answer. "Up here…"

Casey looked up, and saw Calla on the stairs, leading up to the next floor's fire escape. "Did you leave the window open?"

Calla glanced down at him. "Yeah, sorry…"

Casey looked at her curiously. "What's wrong with you?"

April walked over to the window. "What's going on? Did she leave the window open?"

"Yeah, but she's being…weird." Casey looked up. "Calla! You have no coat on, it's freezing out, aren't you cold?"

No response, Calla just looked around intently.

Casey sighed deeply, then went out onto the fire escape, and climbed up to where Calla was, while April stood there, looking up to where they were.

"Hey, what's the matter? I thought things were great with you and your sisters again."

"It is." Calla said absent-mindedly. "But I hear something…voices…the air is all wrong…" she turned to Casey, a somewhat worried look on her face. "Something's not right. I don't like it."

Casey looked concerned, then he looked around a bit. "Well if something isn't right, you're a sitting duck out here. You need to come inside. Come on." He began descending the fire escape, and looked up as he noticed Calla wasn't following him. "Calla." He said a little more firmly.

Calla let out a sigh of frustration. "Fine…" she then came down, and went inside with April and Casey.

April closed the window then turned to Calla. "What's going on?"

Calla shook her head slightly. "Something isn't right…"


	32. Taken

A few nights later, Donny was looking at the camera feed when he noticed one of his cameras was down. He threw his hands up in frustration. "Ah come on, not again…"

Rita, hearing his frustration, looked over. "What's wrong?"

Donny sighed heavily. "One of the cameras is down." He shook his head. "I coulda sworn we just worked on that one..." He shuffled through some papers and random equipment at his desk. "I need to go check on it..." then he looked at the monitor and sighed deeply. "But I need to run the remote diagnostic from here too." He turned to Rita. "You can run the diagnostic right?"

Rita looked at the computer warily. "I can figure out 99.98% of your work Donny…but that program is still an enigma. The algorithm you use to run that is still a mystery to me." She shook her head. "But I can go get the camera. I remember where it is."

Donny looked wary. "I dunno…" He thought for a moment. "Or if you do, don't go alone."

Rita smiled slightly. "Ok, worry wort, I'll see who wants to go."

Donny still looked a little worried as Rita walked off, but his attention turned back to the screen as he began looking through the rest of the camera feed.

* * *

Before long, Rita, along Salina and Leo, began heading out to where the camera was.

Donny handed Rita a small device. "Attach this to the camera when you get there so I can have a more secure connection to it."

Rita looked over the device. "Ok, got it." She started to walk away when she felt Donny gently grab hold of her arm.

"Be careful." Donny still looked a little worried.

Rita gave him a quick kiss. "I've even got my communicator, I'll be fine. Be right back."

"Don't worry Don, we got this." Leo assured.

Donny nodded towards him, and the three left.

Up top, remembering their route from the other night, Rita guided Salina and Leo to where the camera was.

* * *

Rita spoke into her communicator. "Ok, we just got to the rooftop."

"Great, just plug in the transponder so I can have a look see." Replied Donny.

Rita looked around for a moment, not seeing the camera. "Wait, I don't see it."

Salina looked around with her. "Are you sure you have the right place?"

Rita glanced over at the broken skylight, and remembered the ordeal from that night. "Yeah, this is definitely the place."

Leo looked around, and started pacing the rooftop.

Rita looked around some more and finally spotted the camera. "Found it!" She rushed over to grab it, but before she did, she stopped short and stared at it.

Noticing her demeanor, Salina walked over. "What's wrong?"

Rita pointed at the camera. "It's been broken…on purpose."

The camera laid on the ground, smashed into pieces, a brick lying next to it.

Just then, Salina heard Leo draw his katanna and quickly whipped around.

"Salina! Rita!" he called out to them. "We're not alone."

Hearing Leo's exclamation over the communicator, Donny got even more worried. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

* * *

At April and Casey's, Calla suddenly leapt up from her spot on the couch next to April and Casey, and straight to the window.

Her sudden jump startled April and Casey.

"What's wrong?" asked April, quickly sitting up.

Calla's heart raced. "Something's very wrong..."

* * *

"We leave, _now_!" Leo exclaimed.

Just as soon as they began running to him, Salina cried out in pain and stumbled.

"Salina!" Rita tried to steady her sister, but she quickly began losing consciousness. "No no no Salina!" she hit her face to try and keep her conscious, but to no avail.

Hearing the commotion over the communicator, Donny dropped his headset, and quickly grabbed his bo staff. "They're in trouble, we gotta go, _now_!"

Raph, Mikey, Cori and Shelley jumped up and ran out of the lair.

* * *

Calla suddenly opened the window to the apartment, and nearly flew out.

Casey grabbed his jacket from the back of the couch, and took off after her.

April, beyond confused, ran to the window and looked to where they ran, before she grabbed her phone and jacket, and ran out of the front door.

* * *

Leo ran over to where Salina had collapsed onto the ground. "Salina!"

Rita pulled a dart out of her sister's arm. "What is this?" she muttered to herself. She barely had time to wonder before more started flying at them.

Leo quickly picked up Salina, and pulled Rita up. "We have to get out of here!" He managed to use his katanna and shell to deflect a few of the darts, but more kept coming.

Rita began running ahead of Leo and Salina, when she heard a loud thud behind her, and saw Leo had been hit, causing him to fall and drop Salina.

"Leo!" Rita gasped and ran to him and Salina.

Leo struggled to keep moving, but another dart hit him. "Go…" he muttered.

Rita felt an asthma attack coming on as she struggled with indecision.

"Go!" Leo shouted with the last bit of breath he had.

Rita was reluctant to leave them, but as she began hearing people approaching, she took off.

Just as she grabbed for the fire escape, she felt a dart hit her, and as she lost consciousness, she fell onto the first step of the fire escape, which was shrouded in shadows.

* * *

Calla raced across rooftops with a speed that made it darn near impossible for Casey to keep up with.

"Man I gotta get back in the gym…" Casey muttered to himself, out of breath.

* * *

Leo still struggled to keep awake, especially as he heard people approaching. He had almost reached his katanna when a foot stepped in between his hand and the sword, and soon kicked it away. "Not so fast." Came a man's voice. Barely able to stay awake any longer, Leo only caught a glimpse of the man's face, and the gold toothed grin, before he blacked out.

Shadows engulfed the unconscious Salina as the man and four Foot soldiers stood over her.

"I want this one." The man then looked around. "There was another. Where is she?"

The Foot soldiers started to search for Rita when the man spoke up.

"Wait, stop stop, it doesn't matter." He waved it off. "This one will do…for now."

"Do you want the other?" One asked, pointing at Leo.

The man looked at Leo, thinking for a moment. "Eventually." He looked away from Leo. "But for now, my facilities can only contain the females. Once he wakes up he'll be too difficult to subdue." He gestured towards Salina. "Besides, they'll all come for her." He turned around and began walking away. "Bring her to me. I need to be on my way as soon as possible."

The Foot soldiers nodded, then picked up Salina and began carrying her off.

* * *

After a while, everyone arrived on the rooftop and surveyed the scene.

"Whoaa, Leo is knocked OUT." Mikey remarked looking down at Leo, face down on the rooftop.

Donny kneeled down and quickly checked his vitals. "He's stable." He then stood up and began looking around.

Cori began to panic as she looked around. "Where's Salina and Rita?"

"Rita! Salina!" Shelley called out, getting nervous.

"Rita!" Donny called out, almost frantic.

"What happened? Why can't you find Salina and Rita?" Said another voice.

Everyone quickly turned as Calla ran up to them. "Were the voices here? Did they take them?"

"Voices?" Mikey asked.

"I heard voices…I don't know what they were saying, but they were close, and familiar, and I didn't like them…" she paced around. "And now, now they're go…" She sniffed the air. "No wait…Rita's close."

They all then heard a thud, as Casey, who finally caught up, collapsed onto the rooftop.

"You good man?" asked Raph, looking at Casey as he laid on the ground attempting to breathe.

Casey briefly held up a hand, trying to catch his breath. "I'm good…I'm good."

Calla ran towards the edge of the building and looked down. "Rita's over here!"

Donny rushed over and pulled the unconscious Rita out of the shadows. He breathed a sigh of relief as he looked her over and checked her vitals. "They must've not seen her here…"

"But Salina is still missing…" Calla looked around, ears twitching in different directions. "They couldn't have gone far."

Shelley started crying. "Why did they take her?" She gasped. "What if….what if it's like, the same people who…" her lip trembled, looking at Cori.

Cori swallowed a huge lump in her throat. "They're not taking her like they took…" she shook her head. "Come on! We have to find out where they went!" As she began walking away.

"We need to get Leo and Rita back home first, find out what they've been hit with." Said Donny. He then held up a dart he pulled out of Rita's shoulder. "Which I'm guessing is this, and whatever is in it."

"And in the meantime Salina's getting farther and farther away!" said Calla. "We don't know who has her and what they're gonna do to her!"

"We gotta look for her now Don man, there's no tellin' where them fools are takin' her." Raph agreed.

Donny nodded and sighed deeply. "Okay, me, Mikey and Shelley are gonna take Leo and Rita back home. You guys have your communicators on, keep us posted as to what you find. Let us know if you see _anything_ so we can come to you."

Casey finally joined the crew. "So what are we doing?"

"We're gonna go find my sister." Said Calla, before she, Cori, and Raph took off.

"More running." He took a deep breath. "Ok, let's do this." He then took off with the others.

"You gotta like, carry Leo." Remarked Shelley, looking down at their unconscious leader.

Mikey sighed. "Great." He lifted Leo up and threw him over his shoulder as Donny, carrying Rita, began heading off towards home. "Geez man, you need to lose some weight." Mikey complained as he struggled under Leo's dead weight.


	33. The Docks

Back at the lair, April gasped as they rushed in with an unconscious Leo and Rita. "Oh my gosh, what happened?!"

"They got hit with a couple of these." Donny quickly handed her a dart as he hurried into his lab.

April looked it over, then looked at Shelley. "Where's Calla?"

"They like, went to go find Salina." She looked distressed. "They took Salina."

"They? They who?" April was beyond confused.

"We dunno!" cried Shelley. "Bad people, has to be!"

Mikey put Leo down on the couch. "Dude." He took a deep breath. "Well that's my workout for the day."

Master Splinter walked out into the living room and looked alarmed as Leo was sprawled out, unconscious on the couch. "What has happened?" He looked around. "And where is everyone else?"

"Donny's in the lab with Rita, she's not awake either. Raph and Cori and Calla and Casey went to go find Salina." Shelley froze for a moment, looking distant. "They took Salina!" she cried, almost as if she just re-realized her sister had been kidnapped.

Donny put Rita on a respirator, then cleared another table. "Bring Leo in here!" he called out to the living room. He heard Mikey groan, and shortly thereafter bring Leo in and lay him on a table across the room from Rita.

Donny looked Leo over again, then removed the two darts from him. He sighed deeply. "I can't do anything more until I know what's in these darts." He looked them over, then hurried over to his workstation. "Mikey, you and Shelley listen out for the others on the radio while I figure this out."

"Sure thing bro!" Mikey then hurried out to the living room, followed quickly by Shelley.

Donny sighed deeply, then glanced over at Rita, before going back to his research.

* * *

A couple of hours later, April looked nervously at the clock. "Daylight is coming soon." She looked at her cell phone, resting in her uneasy hands. She lifted it slightly, but then let out an exasperated sigh before clenching it tightly again in sweaty palms. "And Casey hasn't been answering his phone."

Just then, Raph's voice came over the radio. "I think we found something! Out by the docks!"

Mikey, practically startled by Raph's exclamation jumped up out of his seat at Donny' station, before he turned to Shelley. "Go get Donny!"

Shelley ran into the lab, almost tripping over her own feet.

Donny peered into his microscope, before writing down some notes.

"Donny!"

Shelley's exclamation made Donny jump and drop his pen, which promptly rolled under a nearby table.

Donny muttered something before looking at Shelley. "What? What happened?"

"Raph thinks they like, found something out by the docks! We should like, go!" Shelley was almost jumping in her spot.

Donny glanced down at his notes, then got up and grabbed his walkie talkie and turned it on as he left the lab. "Talk to me."

"There's some trucks out here bro. There's al…" Raph stopped short as the loud engine of a small airplane could be heard.

Donny was beyond confused. "What's happening?!"

* * *

Calla ran towards an abandoned shed. "No! They're getting away!" she shouted as the small charter plane ascended. She climbed on top of the small, run down building, and attempted to jump up to grab the plane. But it ascended too quickly, and she missed it. When she came back down from her jump, her weight caused the rusted roof of the building to collapse, and she fell inside.

"Calla!" Casey shouted, and they all ran into the building.

Inside, Calla had landed on top of a man.

"Get off me!" he complained. He pushed a slightly dazed Calla off, and when he turned around, he noticed the mutant Turtles standing before him. "He was right." The man said in wide-eyed amazement.

"Who's right?!" demanded Cori.

The guy was at a loss for words, just staring at the sight before him, mouth agape.

Casey grabbed the guy up by the collar, twisting it around his clenched fists. "Who was in that airplane? Where did they go?!"

The guy shook, and finally held his hands up in submission. "I dunno, ok, I dunno! I don't know the guys' name, he paid me cash, for my plane, took…" he pointed to the group of Turtles standing behind Casey. "…one of you guys."

"They _do_ have Salina!" Cori took a deep breath and paced around for a second.

"Where did they go?!" demanded Calla.

"I dunno, I dunno! He said something about South America, asking if my plane will make it there. But that's it, I swear that's all I know!" the guy almost whimpered. "Please don't eat me."

Raph looked offended. "Eat you?" He thought to comment on that, but decided against it as he shook his head. "Whatever…"

"Guys what's going on?!" Donny's voice came over the communicator.

Raph picked up his communicator. "They just left…" He took a deep, exasperated breath. "…to South America."

"Look, come back…daylight's coming." Donny sighed.

Raph looked at the sky. "I know…" He then turned to everyone. "Let's go!" He gestured towards the man. "Leave spineless here and let's beat it."

Casey looked back at the guy, delivered a knockout punch, then dropped him and walked off.

"What do you mean go? We have to find a way to catch that plane!" Calla said frantically.

Raph looked incredulous. "In the sky?! What you want us to sprout wings or somethin' kid? We can't do that, and daylight's comin!"

"So what are we gonna do?" Cori asked, staring up at Raph.

"Go to South America."

* * *

When they got back home, Leo was awake. He was back out on the couch, sitting up groaning and holding his head, and drinking tea that Sensei made for him.

"What happened? I feel like I've been hit by a truck…" Leo groaned.

"They kidnapped Salina." Raph quickly said as he passed through.

Leo's head snapped up, and he soon regretted the quick movement as the room spun and his head throbbed. "How…whe…" he groaned again, and attempted to get up.

"Easy there bro." Mikey said, easing Leo back down onto the couch. "You're not goin' anywhere yet."

"Is Rita awake yet?" Cori asked as she saw Donny standing near the lab.

Donny shook his head. "Not yet, but she's stable." He held up one of the tranquilizer darts. "These were made with you ladies in mind. The compounds have a more, fleeting effect on us. On you ladies, it appears to be designed to last hours." He looked over the dart carefully. "Perhaps it's based on weight…"

"We've gotta get to South America!" said Calla, pacing frantically around the living room. "They took Salina there, we have to go!"

"Where in South America?" Donny asked. "It's a big place…"

"We'll figure it out when we get there." Calla said hastily. She then turned to Donny. "As much as she pisses me off we HAVE to save her."

Donny looked at her resolutely. "Going to save her was never a question Calla. But if we can narrow it down, we have a better chance of saving her…in time."

"Heyyy like, isn't that where daddy's old job was?" Shelley slowly walked over to them, appearing to be in deep thought, before her glassy aqua eyes met Calla's. "Daddy used to work in Brazil right? Where he like, rescued us?"

Calla smiled slightly. "You're a genius Shelley."

Shelley offered a half-hearted smile.

"But it's been years, that place burned down, it's probably just a pile of ashes." Cori chimed in.

"Criminals never stray too far from the scene of the crime." Donny thought out loud. Hearing a slight noise coming from the lab, he glanced towards it. "Rita must be waking up." He turned back towards the others. "I bet she knows the name of the lab. Once Leo is up and ready, we're taking a trip."


	34. Plane Ride

Salina stirred slightly, still feeling a distinct soreness in her arm. She groaned a little, before her eyes slowly began opening. Everything looked blurry and sounds were muffled. As she continued to wake up, she felt her face pressed against something cold and metal, as well as heard a strange humming sound, like a motor. She began trying to sit up when she realized her wrists were tethered together with a rather heavy duty set of handcuffs. The realization made her adrenaline pump and she came to faster. As things came more in focus, the first things she saw were the handcuffs on her hands, as well as the thick chain bound around her ankles.

"You're up."

Salina's head snapped up at the sound of the voice. Her vision blurred again slightly, until she saw the gold-toothed grin of the man seated a few feet from her. Her eyes widened in shock, staring at the man. She could barely find her voice, her eyes just wide, focused on the man.

The man shifted in his seat, and he leaned forward slightly, towards Salina, who was lying on the floor. "We've never been properly introduced." He grinned. "Mr. Bristol." He briefly held out his hand, then chuckled mockingly as he retracted it. "Of course, my apologies, you're a little, tied up."

Salina's eyes narrowed and she began struggling to move, but then she realized not only was she bound hand and foot, but she was also tethered to the wall of what seemed to be a small aircraft.

"Sorry about that, I had to improvise." Mr. Bristol sat back. "I was supposed to have you in a cage, but, our pilot informed me the weight would be too much for the aircraft. So this will have to do." He looked at her curiously, briefly tapping one of his feet on the floor. "I can't seem to figure out which one of Richard's little freaks you are."

Salina glared at him. " _You_ killed him." Her voice was low and angry.

"So you _do_ talk!" he laughed a bit to himself. "Well yes, yes I did." He said rather matter-of-factly before he sighed deeply. "Now back to my query, which one are you? Hm? I read his journals from the house we raided. You're not the cat, the bubbly one, or the genius...the hothead perhaps?"

"Let me go!" Salina screamed, rage starting to fill her as she woke up more and more and realized just who this man was. "Where are my sisters?!"

Mr. Bristol stared at her for a moment, before sitting up and eagerly pointing a finger at her. "I got it!" He smirked. "The leader. Yess, you were the one always concerned about the others." He nodded to himself. "I knew I'd figure it out." He sighed deeply. "In response to your question, I have no idea. One was with you, she disappeared. And one of your new friends, well, we knocked him out pretty good." A wry smile crossed his clean shaven face. "Too bad we couldn't bring him along for the ride."

"Leo…" Salina muttered to herself. She looked around. "Where are you taking me?"

Mr. Bristol leaned back in his chair. "To a place you haven't seen since you were a wee hatchling…well, at least close to it. The lab was irreparable after the fire, but we managed to build a semblance of it nearby." Just then, his phone rang, and he held up a finger to Salina. "Excuse me."

Salina glared at him for a moment as he took his call, then began looking at her surroundings. Considering her current predicament, fighting her way out would be nearly impossible; but she knew she'd have to try something at some point. She adjusted herself to sit up as best as she could, and better gain her bearings just as Mr. Bristol finished his phone call.

Mr. Bristol looked over at her, and gave one of his characteristic evil grins. "That was one of my associates. He can't wait to meet you." He then looked as if a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Oh yes, and if you decide to get too feisty…" he pushed his tan blazer to the side slightly to reveal a handgun tucked into a holster on his waist. He then winked at her. "I think I've made my point." He sat back again. "I don't need you alive. Your friends will come running soon enough; I'll have plenty to choose from."

"You can't overpower them." Salina said resolutely.

Mr. Bristol grinned once more. "We'll see."

Salina looked away from him; all she could think about was the story Cori told of the man with the gold-toothed grin shooting their father and leaving him to burn alive. She fought back the tears; but she knew he was wrong…or she at least hoped he was.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Leo had just exited the dojo after getting his bearings back in a quick training session.

"I'm ready." He said resolutely, almost pacing around everyone. "So what's going on? When do we leave?" he approached Raph and Mikey, standing over a map with April.

"Casey's getting info on some cargo planes leaving for Brazil. Rita woke up and told us the name of the old lab. It's located here." April pointed to a spot on the map. "The cargo plane needs to take you to this airport." She pointed to another spot. "And it's about two day's journey through the forest from there." She sighed deeply. "I hope you get there quickly." She shook her head. "Those sick bastards."

"Grab your gear boys, we need to be ready to leave as soon as Casey gives the word." Leo stated as he stood in the middle of the living room, fully recovered, firmly placing his katana in their holsters on his shell.

Raph patted the sai securely in his belt. "Born ready."

Mikey twirled his nunchuks before putting them away. "Ready bro."

Donny looked over Rita's vitals in the lab.

"Donny I'm fine." Rita sounded just a tad bit annoyed, pushing away the stethoscope. "We need to get going."

"We are, we're just waiting on Casey to let us know he found us a plane." He sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, I just had to make sure you're ok. This is the second time you've ended up on my table…I have no lab out there to take care of you."

Rita sighed, smiling slightly. "I'm fine. I just want to find my sister."

Leo poked his head in the lab. "We're on the move!"

Donny nodded. Then he turned to Rita. "Time to go."


	35. Daring Escape

"We should be reaching you soon. Yes. Yes. Is everything ready?" Mr. Bristol nodded. "Perfect." He then hung up the phone and looked over at Salina. "I hope you're ready to meet some new friends."

Salina glared at him with disdain before looking away. She heard Mr. Bristol on the phone again, and took the opportunity to more carefully observe her surroundings. Being fully awake, she was now able to concentrate on what was around her.

She was located next to an exit door where there were parachutes, a somewhat mangled fire extinguisher and a life raft. Across from her was another exit door. She looked over at the pilot, then glanced back at Mr. Bristol. She looked at her feet and wiggled them a bit; the cold metal chain tightly wound around her ankles, threatening her circulation, allowed for very little movement, the handcuffs even less; but her legs could still move a bit. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly as she heard Sensei's voice in her head. _A ninja can escape even the most difficult of circumstances utilizing stealth and speed._ Salina opened her eyes and nodded. "Hai Sensei." She formulated a plan, and knew it had to executed quickly and flawlessly.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Salina laid as flat on her back as possible, flipped her legs over her head, and with great force, kicked the fire extinguisher at a certain angle, causing it to break and fly across the room, hitting the door release.

Mr. Bristol jumped up in shock, almost dropping his phone.

Salina then swung the other way as much as she could, quickly pressed the door release for the door next to her.

"What's going on back there?!" shouted the pilot as he heard the commotion and felt the plane waver.

"Stop it! You're going to kill us you idiot!" Mr. Bristol held tightly onto his seat, afraid to let go lest the wind carry him off the plane.

Salina completely ignored him and swung herself around quickly once more, with such speed that it broke the cuffs from their tether on the wall. The wind quickly pulled her to the exit, and as she flipped over, she managed to kick down and grab the parachute right before she fell out of the plane.

"Unbelievable!" Mr. Bristol was beyond words. He then turned towards the pilot. "Land the plane! Land it now!"

* * *

Mikey grinned as they approached the far end of LaGuardia airport where a cargo plane was being loaded for a late night flight. "Just like old times."

"You've like, done this before?" asked Shelley, curious and somewhat worried.

"Oh yeah, it was awesome!" He thought for a moment. "Well, except for the crashing part…"

Calla's ears perked up and she looked at Mikey quickly. "Crash?"

"Let's move now!" Leo said in a strained whisper.

Everyone followed as the engines of the plane started up and the door started closing.

Leo stood at the entrance, quickly ushering everyone in. Once everyone was in, Leo jumped in as well, just as soon as the door shut.

* * *

Salina winced from the fall, her side in pain as she was being jabbed by a branch, which was scraping the soft skin on her side. She heard voices and tried to keep as quiet as possible. Still, despite all the trees in the forest, 'luck' had her land in a spot where the foliage was sparse, making it easy for her to be found.

Mr. Bristol walked around, looking for Salina. "Nice little stunt you pulled. I'm sure you know, I will repay you for this trouble." He muttered. "Thanks to you, the landing took up the rest of our fuel."

Salina grinned to herself. Despite hearing his footsteps drawing closer to her would-be hiding spot, she was glad reaching the destination would be prolonged.

Mr. Bristol suddenly stopped, and looked down at Salina. He gave her a blank stare before crouching down in front of her. "In a bit of a pickle aren't you?"

Salina just glared back at him.

He smirked slightly, noticing the branch jabbing her in the side.

Salina's expression took on one of concern.

A flock of birds suddenly flew up into the air in a nearby tree at hearing the scream of pain resonating throughout the forest.


	36. The Forest

Calla, nose in the air, sniffed around as they began walking through the forest.

"Anything?" Leo asked, looking at her concentrated expression.

"There's something faint…fuel..." Her eyes lit up and she focused in one direction. "Plane fuel!" Calla darted off, with everyone following her as quickly as possible.

They all soon reached the abandoned aircraft, smoke still rising as it sat atop a few broken trees.

"This is the plane we saw by the docks!" exclaimed Cori, quickly going inside.

They searched the small plane, but found no sign of Salina, or her captor.

Calla looked around. "They're on foot, they couldn't have gone far."

Donny observed the plane. "This couldn't have been here for more than a day." He looked around, then down at the machine he was holding. "Travel to the lab from here is still about two days." He closed the machine. "We have to keep moving."

Calla sniffed the air. "I smell…blood…"

Shelley gasped. "Is it…"

Calla shook her head. "I can't tell whose blood it is…just that it's blood." She walked forward a little way's until she stopped and looked down. She gingerly picked up a stick and held it up. The tip was somewhat sharp, and covered in blood; blood with a greenish tint.

The rest of the crew stopped and stared at it for a moment.

"Could it…"

"Like Donny said..." Calla cut Cori off. "…we have to keep moving." she said resolutely, dropping the stick and continuing to smell the air.

* * *

Mr. Bristol tugged and pulled Salina along. "Come on!" he said impatiently, pulling her by some rope he tied around one of her arms.

Salina took a deep breath, wrists still cuffed behind her back, she winced slightly, as with each step she felt the pain of the stick that was forcefully jabbed into her side. Having already walked almost a full day's journey after only brief rest the night before, and nothing to eat since her capture, she collapsed onto her knees.

Mr. Bristol let out an exasperated sigh, suddenly stopping, and turned to look back at Salina. "I didn't say we could stop." His voice low, laced with anger.

Salina glared back at him. "But my legs did."

Mr. Bristol glared back at her for a moment, before looking around briefly.

Salina wiggled her wrists slightly, feeling them start to numb again from the tight cuffs.

Mr. Bristol held up his cell phone, and cursed briefly to himself as he saw his signal was still too low to make any kind of phone call.

The pilot with them held a rifle that was strapped across his back. He looked around briefly before looking back at Mr. Bristol. "We've still got another day until we reach sir."

Mr. Bristol nodded. "I know." He wiped some sweat, and a random insect from his brow. He sighed deeply, then looked down at Salina who was now sitting on the ground, leaning to the side slightly, still in pain. "Don't get too comfortable. You've got an hour." He crouched down in front of her. "Remember, I don't need you alive."

Salina smirked slightly. "For now, yes you do. I'm heavier than the average female." She gestured towards him. "You'd buckle under my weight before you even reach the next tree."

Mr. Bristol chuckled briefly before he suddenly grabbed her neck.

Salina gasped slightly, feeling her air cut off.

"I would watch my tone if I were you." He grinned slightly. "I'll wait until your friends show up…and I know they will, and finish them off, one by one, right in front of you."

Salina just glared at him, struggling not to lose consciousness due to hunger, pain, and now, lack of air.

Mr. Bristol then just as suddenly let her go, and stood up.

Salina gasped for air, coughing a bit.

Mr. Bristol began to walk away, then stopped to partially look back at her. "And just so you know, if I needed to carry you, I'd find a way." He then walked past the pilot, who was now sitting. "I have to visit the little boys' room." He gestured towards Salina. "Keep an eye on her."

The pilot nodded, bringing his rifle around to the front of him. "Don't try anything." He warned.

Salina glared at him for a moment, before rolling her eyes and turning away. "Whatever…"

* * *

Several hours later, Leo looked up into the trees as they rustled. "Anything?"

Calla's voice came a few moments later. "Not yet."

Leo sighed deeply, then briefly got an irritated look as he heard a small shriek for probably the hundredth time. "Might as well announce our arrival Shelley."

"She's trying bro. Leave 'er be." Mikey defended, as Shelley, arms tucked close to her body, tried not to react to the spider webs she walked through, and flying insects that occasionally hit her face. "It's ok, there's a lot of stuff out here." Finding her in the dark, he wrapped an arm around her. "I got you."

Shelley smiled slightly, leaning into Mikey.

Cori waved a web from in front of her face. "It's so dark, I can't see crap. I dunno how Calla does it."

"She's high up, closer to the moonlight. Her eyes don't need much light." Donny explained. He flexed his arm a bit, making sure Rita's was still there, wrapped around his. "Are you ok?" he asked, hearing her briefly use her inhaler.

"Yeah." She sighed deeply. "I might need a break soon."

"Just tell me whe…"

"Hey!" Calla said in a subdued shout. "There's a campfire up ahead."

Everyone suddenly stopped.

"Where?" asked Leo.

Calla shook the tree she was in a little more. "Follow me. I'm gonna get us close."

"Everyone keep it down. Especially you Shelley..." Leo couldn't gesture towards her in the dark. "Wherever you are…"

* * *

A/N: No, I did not abandon this story folks! Just been doing a lot of work in the house and other random things. But I'm seeing this through to the finish


	37. Found and Lost

Salina laid on the ground in the middle of the makeshift campground, shivering slightly as she tried to rest, lest she lose what little strength she had. Though she had since stopped bleeding, she'd lost a decent amount of blood from her side, she was still in pain, and her hunger pangs were beginning to get to her. On the run, they'd always been able to grab some kind of food, even something miniscule. She believed Mr. Bristol's every word about not needing her alive; he sure wasn't trying to keep her that way. One saving grace is since Mr. Bristol needed her to walk in the mean time, he removed the chain from around her ankles. Still, she bore some indentation on her skin and residual soreness from where they were. She could only imagine what her wrists would look like after all was said and done. She only briefly got her cuffs removed earlier in order to use the bathroom behind a tree; she was surprised to have been given that much of a courtesy. Then again, she was sure they didn't want to travel with a soiled Turtle.

Looking around briefly, Salina noticed that Mr. Bristol wasn't there, just the pilot, his rifle still close by, as he drifted in and out of sleep. For just a pilot, he was rather unnerved by the whole ordeal, except for the almost-crash she caused. Sighing deeply, she laid back down on the rather hard dirt, attempting to rest up again, and hoped her family would come for her before it was too late…

* * *

Before long, the Turtle crew stopped and Calla dropped down in front of them. "I saw one person…and Salina." The light from the fire illuminated part of the forest. "They're right through there."

Leo peered through the trees, carefully observing the campsite. He then turned towards the others. "Ok, Raph, Cori, go handle that guy over there. Donny, you and me get Salina. Calla, keep an eye out. Mikey, Rita and Shelley, cover us in case of anything." He looked around. "Everybody got it?"

"Got it bro." Mikey reassured, twirling his nunchuks.

Leo nodded. "Good, let's go."

Cautiously using the shadows and trees as coverage, Raph and Cori approached the pilot, as he sat, apparently trying to keep himself awake by idly looking through a map.

Suddenly, he felt a hard blow to his neck, and fell over unconscious.

Startled by the sound of the pilot's body falling over, Salina quickly looked up, just as Leo and Donny approached her. She looked at them in shock and a smile came over her face as they came over to her. "You're here." She said almost in disbelief.

"That's right, we're here." Leo smiled as he began helping her up.

Salina then glanced around, and her smile faded. "Wait, he's still not here. You have to hurry before he gets back."

"He who?" Donny asked.

Salina looked worried. "The other guy, the horrible one. Mr. Bristol…he was here…"

"Guys watch out!" Calla shouted down from the trees. She then jumped down, onto Leo, knocking him back down to the ground along with Salina and Donny.

"Ah!" Salina shouted from the pain of falling back on the side where she'd been injured.

Gunfire rang through the air, just missing the trio that Calla knocked down.

Just as they stood up, they saw Mr. Bristol enter the campsite. He smiled wryly. "Well well well, the gang's all here. I mean I knew you would be eventually, but that was rather, prompt."

"That's him." Salina glared.

Mr. Bristol glanced back at the unconscious pilot. "I see you took care of him rather quickly." He pointed his gun at Leo, Salina and Donny. "I promise I won't be so easy."

"You're outnumbered." Calla circled him slightly.

"Gunpower trumps manpower." Mr. Bristol then grinned at hearing an engine.

The others were confused as the sound of the engine got closer and closer.

"But just in case, I brought some manpower as well."

A Wrangler soon practically bulldozed onto the campsite, almost running down Cori and Raph, who jumped out of the way just in time. Three muscular men quickly jumped out after barely coming to a stop and stood by the Jeep, cracking their knuckles.

"I don't need them alive boys, just get me…" he then gestured towards Salina. "And her, out of here."

"Party time." Grinned Mikey.

Without warning, Raph elbowed one of the guys in the head, causing him to fall down dizzied, but not yet unconscious.

Mr. Bristol slowly approached Donny, Leo and Salina, gun still pointed at them. "While my friends are keeping yours busy, I'll be taking her."

"The heck you will." Calla's voice came seemingly out of nowhere, and she appeared right below Mr. Bristol, and kicked the gun up so that when he pulled the trigger, it went off into the air.

"Go!" shouted Calla. She turned and before he could grab for his gun again, swiped Mr. Bristol across the face with her claws, leaving four bleeding gashes across one side of his face, before kicking him in the stomach, sending him collapsing to the ground. "That's for my dad."

Though the men were very strong, they were hardly a match for a group of skilled ninjas.

Two of the men were already barely conscious, when the 3rd guy, seeing they were being defeated, quickly ran over to the side of the unconscious pilot, grabbed his rifle, and fired it into the air.

Startled, everyone stopped.

He then pointed it at the head of the one nearest him; Rita. "Nobody move!" he shouted angrily, breathing heavily from the battle, blood and sweat running down his dirt-stained face.

Rita gasped as she stared down the barrel of the rifle.

"No!" Donny took a step forward, but stopped as soon as he heard the gun cock.

Mr. Bristol grinned, then looked up at Calla, who had been standing guard over him. "All I have to do is say the word, and she's dead. As I explained to your sister, I don't need _everyone_ alive."

Calla glared back at him, then looked over at Rita.

Mr. Bristol slowly got up, edging away from Calla, who's claws were still out. He then grabbed his gun, straightened up his jacket, and looked at everyone smugly. "We'll be leaving now." He then looked at Salina, still leaned up against Leo. "Hand her over."

Leo put an arm around her protectively.

Mr. Bristol pointed his gun at Salina's head, finger on the trigger. "Need I remind you?" he asked darkly.

Salina, left without a choice, stopped leaning into Leo and turned to face him, a distinct fear present in her eyes.

"No matter what, I'm coming for you." Leo reassured in a hushed voice.

Salina nodded slightly.

Leo stared back at Salina, fear and worry in his eyes, as she turned and weakly made her way to Mr. Bristol.

Salina looked over at Rita, exchanging a worried look.

The injured men slowly picked themselves up off the ground with a few grunts, grabbing the still-unconscious pilot as well.

Mr. Bristol held the gun to Salina's head as she reached him. "I suggest you all keep your distance. I know you won't do so forever...but for now."

The rest of the crew watched helplessly as Mr. Bristol and his battle-weary henchmen took off with not only Salina, but now Rita as well.

"You freakin' kiddin me?! What was that?!" shouted Calla as the Jeep disappeared into the forest. She looked towards the others. "They were right here! Right freakin' _here_!"

"They had guns…"

"And you couldn't deflect them with your shells or something?!" Calla cut Donny off.

"If they were pointed at _us_ , yes." Raph shook his head, before slamming his fist into a nearby tree, causing some of the bark to fly off. "How'd we not figure they'd have guns?!"

"Who…who knows how they'll be when we find them again…" Cori fought back tears. "And why did Salina look like that? What happene…"

"She's injured." Donny paced for a moment and held his head, before looking up resolutely. "We do this as planned. We go to the lab. We have no choice."

"You heard what he said…."

"We think smarter, we plan. We don't give up!" Leo cut Shelley off. He looked around at the others, then back to Shelley. "Shelley, I'm gonna need you to build up your nerve, get in there, and hit hard."

Shelley, lip quivering, ready to cry again, nodded, trying to keep her composure.

"Calla." Leo walked up to her. "You're our eyes and ears up there." He pointed up towards the trees. "You hear and see farther than any of us can. I need you to focus…"

Calla nodded.

Leo stepped closer to her. "Remember…focus…on _everything_." He pointed to where the Jeep went. "You use _every_ sense of yours at _full_ capacity to help find them." He looked off to where the Jeep went. "This isn't over yet…"


	38. Into the Forest

It was another hour, as the sun began to rise, that a dilapidated stone building covered in vines, came into view.

"That's the old place. You ladies remember that?" Mr. Bristol grinned, gun still in hand, pointing it at the building briefly. "Your father's old stomping grounds." He glanced at them, then gestured ahead of them. "Your new home is just a little further than that. By the time your friends finally reach us…well, there won't be much of that one to save." He gestured towards Salina briefly.

Rita looked over at her, as Salina weakly leaned over. "Hold on." She whispered towards her. "They're not giving up."

Salina nodded slightly.

Upon reaching the lab, Salina and Rita were taken to a small room around the back of the building, in what was most likely the basement. It was poorly lit, dusty, and empty for the most part, save for a small cage in the corner suited for nothing bigger than a small dog.

"I'll be back soon. Stay here." Mr. Bristol chuckled a bit. "Not that you have a choice." He then left the room and locked the heavy metal door behind him.

Rita watched as they left, then, not restrained in any way, went over to Salina.

Salina sat down on the floor, and Rita knelt next to her, took a hair pin out of her hair, and used it to open the handcuffs Salina wore.

Salina sighed in relief as she removed the handcuffs, and rubbed her aching wrists.

"Where are you injured?" Rita looked her over.

Salina pointed towards her left side. "Bastard stabbed me with a stick..." She used her hands to steady herself on the cold dusty tiles.

Rita looked at her wound. "Oh man, that's definitely infected." Her eyes scanned the room. "Sheesh, not even a bottle of alcohol." She turned back to Salina. "When's the last time you ate or drank anything?"

Salina slumped over against the small cage. "That night's dinner before I was taken. You heard him, he doesn't care if I die." She sighed deeply then looked over at Rita. "You've gotta get out of here."

Rita looked at her quickly. "Not without you!"

Salina shook her head. "Come back for me. I can't run."

"And I've got asthma; we're in the same boat."

Salina shook her head again. "No, no we're not." She shifted in her spot to face Rita better. "Rita, you're so much stronger than you think. Yeah you've got asthma, but look at all the traveling we did, and you rarely had access to an inhaler. Look at all the training you've done despite the asthma, and threat of pneumonia. You've come so far…you got this." She paused for a moment. "Daddy would've been so proud…"

Rita looked at her sister, tears, and worry forming in her eyes. "If I show up…if I find the others without you, you know Leo is gonna have a fit." She quickly wiped away any tears that fell, forcing a small smile.

Salina chuckled slightly. "Yeah well, then tell him to hurry his handsome self up and come get me."

Rita smiled slightly before sighing and looking at the door. "I could open that lock easy. But what if there's a guard there, waiting?"

"Sensei taught you well." Salina smiled. "Like I said, you got this."

Rita took a deep breath and headed for the door.

* * *

Shelley wiped sweat from her forehead as she tried her hardest, being the shortest, to keep up with everyone as they ran through the forest.

Legs carrying them as fast as they could, everyone sped through the forest. Utilizing the endurance training from Ninja camp, they sped through streams, over boulders, and around trees with great agility and speed, determined not to stop until they reached their destination. Their enemies had wheels; they'd have to run just as fast, if not faster.

Over an hour later, they came to a building overtaken by vines, and stopped.

Breathing hard, they stood, staring at the dilapidated structure before them.

Shelley almost collapsed, but Mikey steadied her. "Easy there babe."

Shelley took a deep breath.

"Is this it?" Leo asked.

Calla stared up at the building. "This must be the old one April pointed to on the map. It looks abandoned."

"No electrical signatures." Donny then looked from his machine, up to the building. "Nothing going on in there."

"Then we keep moving." Leo said determinedly, and began running again.

Shelley sighed deeply, then took off after them.

* * *

Rita picked open the lock, and glanced back at Salina.

"Go." Salina mouthed.

Rita then slowly began opening the door. Seeing no one at either side of the door, she pushed it open a little farther, then looked around some more. No cameras; at least not in view. Just a long, poorly lit hallway. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the room and into the hallway, carefully closing the door behind her. She stopped suddenly, hearing footsteps, but quickly realized they were overhead. Muffled voices; one of such being Mr. Bristol's, followed the footsteps. She looked up for a moment, before turning and walking back towards the way they came in.

Before long, she made her way outside, and started in the direction they came from.

"Hey! One of them freaks got out!" A loud voice shouted, followed by heavy gunfire.

Rita turned around and gasped as she saw two heavily armed men running after her. "Oh no no no..." She took a quick puff of her inhaler, then quickly took off running.

The armed men were relentless, following Rita deep into the forest, through all her zig zagging through trees and around rocks and fallen tree limbs. She just barely escaped the barrage of bullets they fired at her.

At one point, she reached a river. She looked up and saw the bridge they used to cross it, but there was no way for her to get up there quickly enough without getting caught by the gunmen.

"She's close! I think I see her!"

Looking back, Rita could see their silhouettes and hear their footsteps approaching quickly. She then looked at the river again, and after taking a deep breath, she did the only thing she could do; jump in.

Rita dove into the water, and went as deep under as she could, and looked up. Through the semi-clear water, she could see the men standing at the water's edge, looking around, trying to see where she could've gone. Forcing herself to stay calm, she remained motionless, and held her breath, lest they see a bubble emerge and know she was under there.

What seemed like an eternity later, they finally left the water's edge, but there was no telling how far they'd gone without coming up out of the water and risking being seen. So she held her breath longer, focusing on the meditation exercises that Sensei taught her, and the breath exercises that Donny worked with her on. Her need for oxygen was increasing, and she felt herself beginning to fade into unconsciousness. Unable to wait any longer, she slowly came up from under the water. After taking a deep breath, she quickly disappeared underneath again; they were still there, but their backs were turned, so they didn't see her. Realizing they would be there a while, she turned and began swimming away, as quietly as possible, against the current.

* * *

A/N: I greatly apologize for the long wait! I'm in the process of finishing up planning for my wedding next month, so as you can imagine, things have been quite hectic! But I will NOT abandon this story, just bear with me pleasee :-)


	39. Alcove Labs

Salina was fighting to stay awake when she heard the metal clank of the heavy door as it opened. Suddenly awakened, she quickly looked up and saw Mr. Bristol, along with a couple of burly, armed guards.

Mr. Bristol's smug expression soon faded as he took a look around the room. Thinking briefly, his smug smile returned and he looked back at Salina. "She won't get far."

Salina glared at him. "You don't know her." she weakly replied.

Mr. Bristol just nodded towards her. "Bring her upstairs."

The guards nodded in response, grabbed Salina off the floor, and pulled her away through the doorway.

* * *

After a trip via an elevator, Mr. Bristol, Salina, and the guards, entered a bright hallway.

Salina squinted her eyes briefly; it was quite an adjustment from the dim room and elevator they were in. Her heart raced as she looked at the hallway before her. Well lit, pristine white tiles and walls; almost like a hospital.

People in lab coats wheeled machinery down the hallways, and some carried vials; some empty, some filled with unknown substances.

"Welcome, to Alcove Labs." Mr. Bristol announced as they began walking down the hallway. He looked at her and smiled. "Your new home."

They soon came to a room and the guards picked Salina up.

"Wait wait, what are you doing? Stop!" Salina struggled with all the strength she had, but it was to no avail. They lifted her up, and strapped her down to a cold, metal exam table. Her heart raced as she stared up at the light fixated above her, and then caught sight of several sharp instruments on the table next to her.

The sound of heels clicking could be heard, and soon there was a woman in a white lab coat standing in the doorway. Her expression brightened as she looked at Salina, and she entered the room, and walked over to the table. "My my…so they _do_ exist." She smiled at Mr. Bristol. "I almost thought you were lying."

"Never that." Mr. Bristol grinned, arms proudly crossed over his chest.

The woman looked at Salina, then suddenly frowned, turning back to Mr. Bristol. "Last we spoke you said you had two."

"The other one got away." Mr. Bristol sighed. "But she's no doubt going to lead the others here." He looked around briefly. "I hope your other room has better…containment. The males are, quite large…and strong."

"You can't beat them!" Salina struggled against her tethers, getting angrier by the moment. Her arm suddenly broke free of one of the tethers.

Mr. Bristol quickly grabbed her arm.

The scientist pulled out a needle and without missing a beat, stuck it in Salina's arm.

Salina tried to pull her arm away, but the needle's contents were quickly emptied into her arm, and her arm, followed by her body, went limp.

The scientist sighed as she threw the needle into a sharps container, then glanced at her watch. "That should give me a few hours."

"You'll need bigger doses for the others." Mr. Bristol said as he and the scientist walked out of the room. " _Much_ bigger."

* * *

Rita finally came up out of the water further up river, and began wheezing. It's then when she realized she no longer had her inhaler. She quickly looked back towards the river, but it was nowhere in sight; no doubt swept away by the rushing current. Knowing Salina was in danger, she kept pushing forward, walking up towards the path they drove on.

Calla suddenly stopped running, causing a chain reaction of sudden stops. She sniffed the air, and her ears twitched.

Leo looked annoyed. "Why did we stop? We didn't even reach the other building!"

Calla quickly shushed him. "Listen."

Leo listened. "I don't hear anything."

Calla began walking off the path and stared into the forest. "Rita!" She then took off.

Donny and the others ran close behind.

Rita had since collapsed, lying on her back on the ground.

"Rita!" Donny quickly dropped down to her side and almost tossing his machine aside, began to look her over. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

"Where's Salina?" asked Calla almost frantically, before looking around. "Is she near here?"

Rita squinted briefly, her breathing labored, but she remained motionless.

Donny looked at her carefully. "Where's your inhaler?"

Rita's eyes shifted towards the river, before she went back to looking straight ahead.

"What's happening?" Cori asked.

Donny held up a hand to keep her and everyone else from coming closer. "Relax." He said to Rita, before reaching into his pocket. "The shot only works if you're relaxed. Completely, relaxed."

The others looked beyond puzzled.

Rita nodded slightly, then winced as Donny gave her a shot of something. A few moments later she took a deep breath.

"Better?"

Rita sat up and turned to Donny. "Better." She looked at the others. "We have to get back to the lab, who knows where they took Salina by now."

"You were there?" asked Leo, stepping forward.

Donny helped Rita stand up. "Yeah I was, but I got away." She shook her head. "I didn't wanna leave Salina, but she made me." She gestured towards the direction she came from. "It's that way. There are guards, heavily armed guards, about 6 outside...who knows how many inside."

"How are we gonna like, deal with guns?" asked Shelley.

"Make sure they're pointed at _us_." Said Leo resolutely. He then looked towards his puzzled brothers. "Boys, we're gonna have to huddle around the girls as we get closer. We need to form a tight barrier."

Raph grinned. "Got it bro. Let's do this."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the long wait folks, but I told you I wouldn't abandon this story! I love it too much lol. Plus its necessary for the sequel ;-) I hope you enjoy!


	40. Gunshots

As night fell, the crew finally reached the lab.

The fluorescent white lights coming from within gave the whole area an eerie vibe.

"Well this isn't creepy at all." Mikey remarked as they looked up at the building from a distance.

"Now's not the time to lose your nerve boys." Leo gestured towards the building. "Salina's in there and she needs our help." He glanced back towards Rita. "You need to stay out here."

"What?" Rita shook her head. "No, I…"

"He's right." Donny cut her off, and looked at her affectionately. "You don't have your asthma pump, and I don't have any more of that shot. I can't have you in battle right now."

"We can't just leave her alone out here." Calla looked concerned. She gestured towards the guards up ahead. "Who knows how far out they extend their patrols?"

Rita sighed. "I'll be fine." She looked at Calla. "Hiding was our specialty, remember?"

Calla smiled lightly. "Yours in particular."

Rita smiled back. She then looked towards the building and sighed. "You better hurry…Salina needs you."

Leo nodded. "Time to move in guys."

Donny looked back towards Rita, and handed her a communicator. "Keep it on low."

Rita looked it over and nodded.

Donny gave her a quick kiss before he reluctantly joined the others.

Rita watched as they disappeared into the distance, closing in on the lab. She then turned and snuck into some bushes deep in the shadows.

* * *

Mr. Bristol stood by, idly smoking a cigar as he looked out of a window, carefully observing the grounds outside.

A guard walked in. "The grounds are secure sir."

Mr. Bristol looked pensive, taking another puff of his cigar before he finally spoke. "Keep patrols tight. They're not giving up that easy."

"Yes sir." Nodded the guard before he walked out.

Shortly thereafter the doctor walked in.

"We're almost ready." She announced.

Mr. Bristol nodded and smiled. "Good."

She looked at him carefully. "Are you sure the others will come?"

Mr. Bristol offered a smug smile as he blew out some smoke. "Without a doubt."

* * *

Before long, the Turtle crew began their stealthy approach into the lab's perimeter, cautiously avoiding being spotted in the heavily guarded area.

Calla's ears twitched at the sounds around her. "This place has got security everywhere." She glanced around. "And they're all armed."

"Stay in the middle ladies. If they see us and start firing, it won't be pretty." Leo looked around for a moment. "We need a good way in."

"Rita mentioned getting out from the basement, that door, over there." Calla pointed off towards a shadowy corner.

Leo glanced in that direction. "Ok guys, let's go."

They stealthily maneuvered the shadows towards the side door.

Once they were inside, they looked around carefully.

"Aaaannnd this is even more creepy." Mikey remarked.

"Um can I like, go wait outside with Rita?" Shelley shuddered.

Cori punched her in the shoulder. "Toughen up!" She pointed upwards. "Salina is up there somewhere and she needs us!"

"Lower your voices!" Leo said in a hushed whisper. "But yeah Shelley, get it together."

Shelley sighed deeply.

"We need to find a way upstairs..."

Just as soon as Leo said it, Calla opened a large, heavy door. "Found stairs!" she said in a hushed whisper.

Everyone headed to the stairwell and began heading up.

* * *

In an exam room, Salina was still unconscious, placed inside a plastic tube restrained to the sides.

The doctor in the lab coat looked up at her while taking down notes.

Suddenly, she jumped, startled by the loud alarm that went off. She looked towards the doorway as guards ran by, then back at Salina.

Mr. Bristol walked in and looked at the doctor, smirking a bit. "They have arrived."

* * *

"What was that?!" Leo looked around. "Who touched something?!"

"They have sensors in the stairwell." Calla ripped one from the wall. "They don't give off the hum…" She threw it down. "Clever."

Raph took out his sai. "It's about to be party time folks."

Leo stood at the door.

Calla looked at him. "They're there."

"Well let's not keep them waiting." Leo then threw himself against the door, inadvertently knocking down several guards in the process.

Shielding the girls, the guys stood, shells facing out, as the guards began firing several rounds at them.

"We can't continue like this!" Donny shouted. "We gotta fight back!"

Without warning, Calla slipped out from their protective cover, and skillfully slid across the hallway, grabbing a metal cart as a makeshift shield, before taking off down the hallway.

"Calla!" Cori called out.

"What is she doing?!" Leo looked flustered.

"Taking action." Raph then backed up quickly, knocking out several guards behind him, then moved back into protective formation.

"Move down the hallway! We need to find Salina!" Leo ordered. "Take 'em out along the way!"

* * *

From her spot outside, Rita's worried eyes were fixated on the windows as she heard the repetitive gunfire and saw the outside guards rush in. "This is bad, this is _very_ bad." She looked around frantically, desperately wanting to help.

Disobeying her instructions, she emerged from her hiding place, and ran into the basement door where the others went.


	41. Hunted

Calla ducked into an exam room, and quickly shut the door, escaping the gunfire.

"Ah, guess you'll be joining us next."

Before she got a chance to turn around to see the source of the voice, she felt a sharp pain in her neck, and immediately blacked out.

* * *

Cori looked around frantically. "Where'd Calla go?!"

Just then, everyone noticed Donny looked dazed.

Donny wavered as his eyes became crossed. "Oh no…" He then suddenly dropped.

Shelley shrieked.

"Donny!" Leo was about to go for him, when he felt a sharp pain in his leg, and he too dropped, followed by Mikey.

"Tranqs! Run!" Raph quickly grabbed Cori and Shelley by their arms, and held them tight as he disappeared around a corner.

* * *

Rita ran through the basement, looking around. "Come on come on, it's gotta be around here somewhere..." She sighed deeply, trying to maneuver through the cobwebs, dust, and darkness. She finally came to a partial drawing on a wall, and after rubbing the dust off of it, realized it was a floorplan. She then pulled out the device Donny gave her, and used the screen's backlight to examine the floorplan. "Eureka!" she then ran off.

* * *

Upstairs, Raph found a hiding place for him, Cori and Shelley. They all sat breathing hard in what seemed like a storage room.

Shelley opened her mouth to whine when Cori slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Not a sound, not a _single_ , frickin' _sound_." Cori warned.

Shelley bit her lip.

Cori turned to Raph. "Now what? They got Donny, Leo, Mikey _and_ Salina now!" Her voice escalated into a strained whisper.

Raph looked pensive. "They were waiting for us…those guards aren't gonna let up til we're _all_ down." He looked around. "They're gonna find us in here eventually."

"Those tranquilizers are like, strong, what are we gonna do?" Shelley looked at Raph, inching further into the corner they huddled in.

Raph just looked at the door.

* * *

Salina shifted and began moving slightly, before opening her eyes. Her eyes began scanning the room as she attempted to gain her bearings. Her vision was blurry at first, but almost immediately cleared as she caught sight of a figure across the room.

"Leo!" Her eyes widened, and the sound of her voice was muffled in the plastic tube. It's then when she looked around and saw Donny and Mikey next to him, then to her side, Calla; all unconscious. Her heart raced. "No no no…" she shook her head.

Mr. Bristol, smugly smoking a cigar as he sauntered in the room, smirked. "Oh yes yes _yes_." He looked around, proud of his accomplishment. "The others seem to have slipped our grasp; three are hiding somewhere in here, and there's your genius sister, whom we haven't seen turn up yet. But don't worry…" He took another puff of his cigar. "We'll get them too."

Salina, filled with fear and fury began to struggle against the tethers tightly fastened to her wrists and waist. "You won't win! You _won't_!"

Mr. Bristol, with his ever-present smug grin, walked towards the door. "My dear…" he paused and looked back at her. "I already have."

Salina watched in frustration as he coolly walked out of the room, still puffing on his cigar.

* * *

Cori examined the room she, Raph and Shelley were hiding in. "We can't stay in here forever." She slowly got up and began pacing the room. She noticed a vent above them and sighed. "If Calla were here she'd be perfect for that."

Raph looked up. "Yeah…can't none of us fit in there. Not me." He looked towards Shelley. "Definitely not you."

Shelley gave him an offended look, before getting up and standing near Cori. "What like, now?"

Cori looked up for a moment. "Maybe…just maybe." She looked at Raph. "Give me a boost."

Raph looked at her curiously.

Cori smirked. "I have an idea."

* * *

Rita ran through the halls until she found the room she was looking for. "Jackpot." She grinned. She then carefully entered the unguarded room and looked around, almost wide-eyed at the machinery and controls. She sighed deeply. "Well then, this is gonna be fun…"

* * *

After a bit of shoving and squeezing, and removal of her boots, Cori squeezed her body into the vent.

Raph looked up apprehensively. "You gonna be able to get through the whole system like that?"

Cori took a deep breath. "It's gonna be tight, but I think I can do it." She looked back at Raph, noticing the look of worry on his face. "Look, I'm the only one that can, sorta, fit up here. We gotta do _something_. We can't just sit here waiting to be discovered."

"What if they like, get us?" pouted Shelley.

Cori sighed. "I'm going to try and make sure that doesn't happen." She looked towards the vent ahead of her.

"What are you gonna do?" Raph asked curiously.

"Something." Cori looked back at him. "Close and lock the vent behind me."

Raph nodded, then grabbed her hand. "Be careful."

Cori gave a half-hearted smile, squeezing his hand briefly before she turned and began carefully crawling through the vents.

Shelley looked as Raph closed up the vent and sniffled a bit. "She's gonna be ok, right?"

Raph was about to answer when they heard footsteps passing the door.

"Maybe like, the real question is, will _we_ be all right?"

* * *

Rita wiped some sweat from her brow as she sat in front of some machinery, tinkering with the inner workings. "Freakin' ancient piece of machinery…"

She looked up and noticed the lights indicating the motion sensors were on. With a little more tinkering, she turned them off. Taking a deep breath, some of her blowing out of her face, she nodded. "Step one, complete." Rita then moved on to another piece of machinery.


	42. Time Running Out

Slowly but surely, the guys began to wake up.

Leo, followed by Donny, and Mikey.

Salina, who's head was down, fighting back tears, heard a faint groan and looked up. Her eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of the others waking up.

Almost immediately upon waking, Leo's eyes met Salina's and he stared back at her. He looked almost defeated. "I'm sorry." He mouthed.

Salina shook her head, a couple tears falling. "It's not your fault."

Mikey looked around the tube he was restrained to. "Well this is familiar…" he said dejectedly.

Donny looked around. " _Too_ familiar." His expression agitated, he tugged at his restraints on his wrists. "Minus the needles."

"How come Calla's not awake?" Mikey asked, noticing she was still unconscious.

Realizing he was right, everyone looked over at her.

"Her dose might've been bigger." Donny then observed the vital signs monitor near her with a hint of worry. "Maybe _too_ big."

Just then, the doctor walked in. "Ah, you're awake." She smiled. "Just as soon as we find the last three, we can start this party." She smirked as she noticed the intense glares directed at her. She then took notice of Calla still out, and tapped the glass.

"Leave her alone!" yelled Salina.

The doctor looked back at her, then slowly approached the glass in front of Salina. She looked up at Salina, a mocking grin across her face. "And just _what_ are you going to do stop me?"

Salina glared at her. "When I get out of here, I'm coming for you."

The doctor chuckled. "Good luck with that." She then turned and sauntered out.

* * *

As Rita tinkered with the controls, she suddenly, but briefly caught sight of Cori peeking out of a vent. Quickly, she shut down all the camera feed, then looked up towards the higher floors, anticipating the chaos. Just as she expected, she soon heard guards running. "Well that got their attention. Should keep them busy for a bit..." She then went to another machine. "Gotta work faster."

* * *

Cori carefully slid through the vents, suddenly stopping as she heard commotion as one of the guards made mention that the cameras are suddenly shut down. She smiled to herself. "Good girl Rita." Then she continued on her way.

* * *

In the supply room where Raph and Shelley were hiding, they suddenly heard the doorknob being turned. Upon realizing the door was locked, they began shaking the doorknob violently.

Shelley threw her hands over her own mouth as she held in a gasp.

Raph stood up, and pushed her behind him. "Hide. Now."

Finding boxes, Shelley hid behind them.

* * *

Cori finally squeezed herself enough through a tight spot and looked down into the room she was now over. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of an unconscious Calla.

Without much hesitation, she opened the vent, and misjudging the distance, jumped, or rather, fell through.

Everyone was shocked as they saw Cori fall out of the vent, onto the floor in the middle of the room.

"Cori!" Salina practically shouted; voice muffled by the plastic tube she was in.

Cori quickly righted herself and looked at her siblings in the plastic tubes. "At the risk of sounding like Shelley, ohmygosh!" She frantically looked around for a way to release them, when she took notice of Calla. Automatically turning to Donny she asked, "Why is she the only one not awake?"

Donny shook his head. "I don't know. But you need to act fast to get us all out of here."

"Okay how?" Cori approached his tube and paid rapt attention to her brother.

Donny gestured towards controls across the room. "I saw that scientist lady over there. There's exactly 9 levers with controls, one for each of these tubes. They have to be it." He glanced towards the door as he heard guards running by. "But you have to act quickly."

Cori nodded then ran to the door, locked it, then ran over to the controls. "All right Donny, let's do this."

* * *

The doorknob jiggled until finally it was shot off and the door flew open.

Guards ran in, and almost right into Raph's shell.

Without a moment of hesitation, he backed his shell into them before they got any shots off, slamming two of them against the wall across the hallway, before knocking out the other two at his sides.

Shelley peeked out of her hiding spot.

Raph called out to her. "Shelley let's go!"

Shelley jumped up from her spot and ran out, stepped over the knocked out guards, and went following Raph down the hallway.

* * *

Rita was tinkering with some controls, when she suddenly heard the door to the room fly open.

Two guards charged in, one immediately taking notice of her. "Hey!"

Rita stared back in shock for a moment, before she saw one go for his communicator. "Oh no you don't." She quickly gained her composure, and utilizing the training she received, charged at both guards.

One lifted his gun to shoot, when she dropped to the floor, just in time to avoid the bullet, then as she slid closer across the floor, kicked the gun up and across the room, before jumping up and knocking out both guards.

Standing over her accomplishment she took a deep breath, and pushed some hair from in front of her face. "That'll show you." She then went back to her task.


	43. Escaped

Cori pushed a couple of buttons.

"No no, the _other_ one!" Donny attempted to explain.

"Can't I just smash them open?! It's breakable ain't it?" Cori said, exasperated.

"I've seen this material before." Donny shook his head. "Wouldn't work." He gestured towards another button on the control panel. "Hit that other button."

A mist began flowing from the vent inside Mikey's tube.

Mikey looked up as the white mist descended, and he started coughing. "Ok can we not?" He said in a strained voice as he attempted to breathe.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Cori pressed the button again and the mist stopped.

"What the heck were they going to do with _that_?" Donny wondered aloud, looking up at the vent in his own tube.

"Donny! Come on!"

Cori's voice snapped Donny out of his deep thought and he took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to get her to release them.

* * *

Raph and Shelley ran down a couple of corridors before hearing guards up ahead, and ducking into a dark room.

"Do you like, even know where we're going?" Shelley asked out of breath, as they crouched down on either sides of the door.

Raph looked offended. "You got a better plan?"

* * *

Cori pushed a button, then pushed up a lever.

Suddenly, the power went out. The entire room went black, and a shout was heard in the hallway.

Mr. Bristol stopped mid-stride in the hallway as the halls went pitch black, not even so much as an emergency light was on. He glared in the darkness. "This isn't over yet."

Cori looked around. "No no no, the controls, they're dead now. Don…" She stopped short and almost screamed as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Relax." Donny's reassuring voice behind her calmed her down. "You opened mine. I got it from here."

"But the power's out." Cori said, stepping aside, not even able to see him in the darkness.

"These things always have a backup module." Donny could be heard cracking his knuckles. "Leave it to me."

* * *

Downstairs, Rita smiled. "Perfect." She then got up, stepping over the still unconscious guards, and left the room.

* * *

Shelley peeked out of the door's window. "Everything's like, dark out there."

"What?" Raph looked out too. "It is…huh." He then smirked. "Oh well, lucky for us, ninjas are masters at moving in the shadows."

Shelley looked towards Raph. "But these aren't shadows, it's like, dark, just dark. Like dark dark."

Raph almost rolled his eyes as he began opening the door. "Just come on. Sheesh. Gotta get you back to Mikey…"

* * *

Mr. Bristol stood in place for a moment, counting to himself. When he reached "1" the Emergency lights suddenly came on and he smirked. "Perfect." He directed the guards that were near him. "Secure the room they're in first! The other three won't be far…."

The guards suddenly charged into the room with the tubes, then stopped short.

"Why are you fools stopping?!" He pushed to the front of the line of guards. "What…." He stopped short as he noticed the empty room. Every tube empty, and the control panel destroyed.

Mr. Bristol's angry shout was heard throughout the hallways of the lab.

* * *

Leo smirked as he, with Calla over his shoulder, led everyone through the building. "Think he's mad?"

"Heck yeah." Smiled Cori.

"Good." Nodded Salina.

They almost ran straight into Raph and Shelley.

"You're safe!" shouted Shelley. "Yayyy!" she clapped.

"Good to see ya bro." Raph smirked, exchanging a fist bump with Leo.

Leo nodded. "Likewise." He glanced back. "We're not out of the woods yet. Let's keep moving!"

They quickly began running down the hallway when they came face to face with more armed guards.

"Woah-ho not that way!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Run!" Leo turned them and began running as shots started being fired.

"If we get hit with tranqs we're done!" said Raph.

"Then we better not get hit." Leo, determination on his face, led everyone down another corridor.

They were soon faced with another wall of guards coming at them.

"Oh no!" Shelley cringed. "Now what?"

Leo looked at the guards coming at them, and heard the ones approaching from behind. He then felt his utility belt and smirked. He nudged Raph. "It's time we fight like ninjas."

Raph looked over at him and what Leo found, and smirked.

As the guards approached from both sides, smoke pellets were thrown, and a melee ensued in the confusion of smoke.

"Fire at will!" came the command.

Gunfire went off, giving off flashes of light in the thick gray smoke.

When the smoke finally cleared, both sets of guards were down, each shot by tranquilizers from their teammates, while the Turtles and Calla stood to the side.

Calla had finally woken up, and from her spot on the floor where Leo had set her down, she looked at all the unconscious guards. "Did I miss something?"

"We won!" Shelley exclaimed.

"Or did you?"

The crew looked over to see the doctor. She was standing next to Mr. Bristol, who held a gun to Rita's head.

Everyone's eyes widened in shock.

The doctor crossed her arms. "It took quite some work, but we finally figured out that your little escapee friend was the cause of our downed cameras and power outage." She glanced at Rita. "It didn't take long to find her after that."

"Now, I suggest you all get back into your tubes, or your sister here won't see another day." Mr. Bristol grinned.

Rita stood frozen.

Without warning, Mr. Bristol, then the doctor suddenly fell.

Rita looked down puzzled, then looked up to see Salina holding a tranquilizer gun.

Salina looked at the doctor, who's eyes were just closing as she stood over her, and smirked. "Told you I was coming for you."

"Yayyy!" Shelley exclaimed again. "Ok now we won?"

"How about we get out of here first?" Leo commented as they all began to leave.

"Ok!" Shelley, stepping over the doctor and Mr. Bristol ran off, grabbing hold of Mikey's outstretched hand.


	44. Explosions

It wasn't long before the crew had left the lab. After traveling for a good couple of hours, they finally settled down to rest deep in the forest.

* * *

As the small campfire they made blazed, and several had fallen asleep, Cori stared into the fire, getting lost in thought. It was the first time she had been able to look at fire without having a panic attack, whether hidden or visible; she mused over how that actually felt nice, to just be able to look at it.

She was only slightly startled by the familiar touch of Raph's hand on her back. She glanced back at him with a small smile, then looked back at the fire.

Raph looked concerned. "You good?"

Cori nodded. "Yeah…"

Raph gave her a disbelieving look. "You sure?"

Cori sighed deeply, then looked back towards the lab where they came from. "What if they come back?" She then turned to Raph. "They got us after so many years, they kept trying and trying and trying…who's to say they won't try again?"

Raph put an arm around her. "Let 'em try." Looking resolute, he added: "We'll be ready."

* * *

The next couple of days, they traveled through the forests to where they knew a cargo plane regularly traveled to a warehouse in New York.

During their travels one day, they all suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, beyond startled as they heard a loud booming sound coming from the direction they came from.

"What is like, that?" Shelley asked, looking behind them. Then she looked back at everyone, worried. "Are they still coming for us? Are they coming back?"

Calla's ears twitched. "They're explosions." She looked around for a moment. "They're far."

Several forest animals made alarmed noises, and a couple flocks of different birds flew overhead, coming from the direction of the explosions.

Leo looked at the birds, then after taking a brief look around at their surroundings, began walking again. "Well whatever it is, I suggest we pick up the pace."

The others followed suit without hesitation.

* * *

They were all able to settle down somewhat when they finally got on the cargo plane into NYC.

Donny tinkered with a radio on the plane until he got it to work. "At least we get a little music."

The music on the radio suddenly stopped.

"Heyy, I liked that song." Whined Mikey.

"Breaking news, an explanation of the mysterious explosions heard over the last few days. Reports confirm that the explosions came from the now destroyed Alcove Labs. Among the many found dead today amidst debris are a Mr. Steven Bristol and Dr. Jennifer Dolan..."

Everyone looked at each other in shock, then back to the radio as Donny turned up the volume.

"The fire and explosives seem to have been deliberately set by a village in the area after they discovered the scientists had kidnapped some of their children for experimentation. No children were found dead, they appear to have all been rescued…"

The crew looked at each other in utter shock and amazement.

"Did they just say…" Calla could barely finish her sentence before Salina spoke.

"They're gone." Salina looked at the radio in disbelief, then turned to Cori, who was sitting next to her. "They're gone."

"Good riddance." Calla glared at the radio.

"They're dead….is it like, ok, to be glad they're dead?" Shelley asked, twirling a strand of her hair around one finger, somewhat confused at the proper emotion to display at the moment.

"They're gone." Salina finally said resolutely. "We didn't kill them…they won't be bothering us."

"So like…what happens next?" Shelley turned to Salina.

Salina turned back to her, and in that instance, she had a brief flashback to when they first lost their father and Shelley's bright aquamarine eyes stared at her in the darkness, looking for an answer; what would be her answer _now_?

* * *

It wasn't too long before they were finally back in the lair.

April and Casey were fast asleep on the couch until the sound of the Turtles and Calla arriving vibrated throughout the lair.

Master Splinter exited his room, and April and Casey suddenly woke up.

"You're back!" exclaimed April.

"Sounds like you had some doubt there." Leo smirked.

April smiled and shook her head. "Never."

"I did." Casey said bluntly.

Raph playfully shoved him. "Jerk."

Casey smiled. "Glad you guys are back."

Splinter walked over, and reached out to Salina's hand. "It's good to have you back safe, daughter."

Salina stopped short and stared back at him for a moment. " _Daughter_." She thought to herself. She then smiled. "Thank you Sensei." She bowed slightly.

April went up to Calla, noticing a different expression on her face. "Are you okay?"

Calla sighed. "I don't know…I think…" she looked at April. "I think I am."

"And them scientists, they ain't comin back. Ever." Said Cori, folding her arms.

April, Casey and Splinter looked puzzled.

Shelley shook her head. "You wouldn't like, believe what happened…"

* * *

A/N: I apologize for the long wait! Life has literally been kicking my butt…but I guess that's always gonna be the case right? (Sigh) Anyways, here ya go! I hope you enjoy!


	45. Conversations

A few nights later, after everyone had explained what happened to April, Casey and Master Splinter, Salina went to the park, and stared at the once-frozen pond that changed their lives forever. She looked at the melting ice absent-mindedly, getting lost in thought.

Her concentration was broken as she felt a presence approaching. Fortunately, the presence was familiar.

"Leo." She muttered, a small smile on her face.

Leo sat down next to her on the semi-frozen grass. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Oh you're gonna need a lot more than a penny." She smirked. Salina glanced at him, then gestured towards the pond. "This is where it all happened. This is where it all started."

Leo looked out at the pond and nodded slightly. "Yeah, yeah it is." He then looked back at her. "Not too long ago you weren't even able to go near here without freaking out."

"I know." Salina sighed deeply.

"You okay?"

Salina shrugged. "I don't even know how to feel anymore. They're….gone. We don't have to run. So much has changed…" She turned as she felt Leo's hand gently touch her face. "Now what?"

Leo looked at her affectionately, brushing some errant strands of hair from in front of her face. "You live."

Salina just stared back at him.

* * *

Cori, Shelley, Calla, and Rita stood outside the dojo, staring at it intently.

"How long has it like, been?" Shelley asked in a strained whisper.

Cori let out an exasperated sigh, trying to refrain from tapping her foot, lest it make unnecessary noise. "Forever."

"I just wanna know what Salina could _possibly_ be talking to Master Splinter about for so long." Rita muttered.

"Maybe…."

Calla was interrupted by Mikey suddenly leaning in over them.

"Hey what are we talking about?" he asked in the same strained whisper.

While everyone else looked annoyed, Shelley smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"You're leaning on my shoulder Dorito breath, move!" Cori said as she pushed him away.

"Dorito….hey you better not have like, eaten all of them without me." Shelley warned.

"Relax babe, I got a whole bag with your name on it." Mikey grinned, gesturing towards his room. He then looked towards the dojo again. "So what's goin' on?"

"Salina's been talking to Sensei for like an hour. We think it's serious." Said Cori.

"Oooohh how serious are we talkin'?" Mikey leaned in again.

"Serious enough for you to get off my shoulder!" Cori shoved him again.

Just then, the door to the dojo slid open, and Salina and Master Splinter exited, eyes almost immediately focused on the nosy group of mutants practically crowded around the doorway.

They all looked at Salina and Master Splinter like deer in headlights.

Salina looked stern. "I have a question for you ladies." She then glanced at Master Splinter, and smiled at her sisters. "How would you ladies like to _really_ call this place home?"

Mouths agape, they all looked at each other, before staring back at Salina, smiles forming on their beyond happy faces.

Salina smiled back. "That's what I thought."


	46. Epilogue

_Well that's it, I guess. The worst is over…and maaan have we been through it! Losing our first home, our 'mother', then our 'father'. All the running, the starving, the hiding, the drama…almost losing Rita, almost losing Rita again, almost losing_ _me_ _…it's been rough…_

… _but it's done. The scientists are gone. The running is done. Because of what we are, we will always hide, but at least we're not hiding alone; we're not alone._

 _Sitting under this tree at 3am in Central Park; I see we're not alone._

 _Former pick-pocket Calla is now socializing; with humans nonetheless. She's drinking sodas and laughing with April and Casey; she's come a long way from almost killing Casey..._

 _Former mute, and still hothead, Cori, just got back from a ride around in Raph's rather noisy motorcycle. I really can't stand that thing, but it's made her happy. Working on it with Raph has made her happy; and I would never take that away from her. He'll never know how grateful I am that he's healed that part of our family, releasing a secret that needed to be told, which helped us all to_ _really_ _heal._

 _Still somewhat sickly, but on the mend, Rita, whose head was always buried in a book, can look up now. She has steady healthcare, and lots of love, thanks to my brother Donatello. He doesn't know how grateful I am that he's taken such good, loving care of her._

 _The always bubbly, but now with a partner to genuinely be bubbly_ _with_ _, Shelley, is running circles around a tree with Mikey chasing her, pretending to be some sort of monster. They make no sense, but they make no sense together, and just the fact that she's happy, and out of my hair all the time, it's wonderful. I'm pretty sure they'll tick me off at some random time with their exuberance; but it's a small price to pay for her smile to return full force._

 _As for me? I'm far from the perfect leader yet, and I probably never will be. But I guess I'll be a less than perfect leader with the blue-clad Turtle whose shell I'm leaning on as we sit in the grass under this tree, watching everyone. I will always enjoy this. I'm strong, but I'll get stronger. Our families united….we've finally found our place to rest._

 _Man I love being a Turtle ;-)_

* * *

A/N: Well that's it for this installment folks! I hope you enjoyed! I'm sorry for the long delays, like I said, life lol. I have a sequel ¼ of the way done, but in order not to have you guys waiting so long I'm only going to start posting that once I have at least half of it done AND edited. Reviews and constructive criticism is always welcome! Thanks for reading!


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